Game of Thrones
Boasting an estimated budget of US$60 million, the ten-episode first season of this epic fantasy series ranks as one of the most expensive ever. With seven expected seasons (one for each of the books in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series),Game of Thrones is shaping up to be one pricey, pricey series.
Terra Nova
Steven Spielberg and co. are practically throwing money at their new time-travel/dinosaur series, Terra Nova. The pilot is proving that producing visuals likeAvatar's for the small screen doesn't come cheap: its budget has overblown to almost US$20 million.
Lost
The Lost pilot cost a whopping US$14 million (mostly because of the cost of purchasing, shipping, and dressing the actual aircraft body used to represent the wreckage). They managed to reign in the budget, with subsequent episodes costing a mere (by comparison) US$4 million each.
Father of the Pride
Widely recognised as one of the most expensive TV flops of all time, Father of the Pride was canceled after just 14 episodes. Each of those episodes cost US$1.6 million and took nine months to create.
Friends
The longer a show goes on, the more expensive it usually gets. Actors get raises, and in the case ofFriends, they got big ones. US network NBC famously forked out US$180 million for the final season. That's a whopping US$10 million per episode, the highest price ever paid for a 30-minute series in television history.
The X Factor USA
They're calling it the most expensive reality show ever made, with each ep costing US$3.5 million. It's expensive enough to make the usually-cocky Simon Cowell a little anxious: "This better bloody work or I am in huge trouble." H-U-G-E. Oh well, surely it can't be as big a disaster as...
The X Factor Australia
The Seven Network reportedly shelled out US$30 million to revive this franchise and the weekly shows only managed to average ratings around the million mark. Ouch!
The Pacific
Said to be the most expensive television production ever made in Australia, this eight-time Emmy Award-winning series was originally expected to cost US$100 million. But costs blew out. Costs blew out a lot. Reports estimate its budget at anywhere between US$180 and US$270 million.
Sea Patrol
While the figures might not seem all that impressive now, Sea Patrol made waves (pun mostly unintended) before its debut in 2006 when it was revealed that each episode cost upwards of $1 million, double the budget of any other Aussie drama at the time.
Rome
The twelve-episode first season cost a whopping US$100–110 million to produce. Rome was cancelled after its second season because it was "notoriously expensive". Go figure.
Boardwalk Empire
While not quite the US$50 million pilot that was rumoured, the first ep of this period drama cost a cool US$18 million, making it the most expensive pilot episode ever produced (Martin Scorsese doesn't come cheap, people!).
Band of Brothers
When it debuted in 2001, Band of Brothers was the most expensive television miniseries ever made, with a budget of approximately US$125 million (around US$12.5 million per ep). And that doesn't include the US$15 million they spent on advertising in the US alone...
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