'Friends' reunited for $7m an episode

Friends will be Friends, and with a 33 per cent pay raise they will remain so for at least one more series.

The six-strong cast of the popular comedy have finally agreed a deal with NBC and Warner Brothers that will see them earn $1m (£700,000) an episode for what is expected to be the final series. This one is due to last 22 episodes, ensuring a healthy pay-off for Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox Arquette, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston.

The deal between NBC and Warner Bros pips the mark set by NBC in 1998 when it paid Warner Bros $13m for each hour-long episode of ER. "This is a great day," Jeff Zucker, president of NBC entertainment, said. The current series of Friends running in America is averaging 24.7 million viewers a week, two million more than its closest rival, having bounced back in the ratings war after being drubbed by Survivor.

Schwimmer and Kudrow, in particular, were keen to move on to new projects, but the ratings fightback and a display of loyalty by fans of the show, which first appeared in September 1994, are also understood to have been factors in the deal.