The most expensive TV shows ever made

WHETHER it’s because of their well paid cast or their exotic filming locations, some TV shows cost millions to make just one episode.

Band of Brothers was not a cheap miniseries to make.

EVEN IF you win the lotto this week, you still won’t have enough money to fund a single episode of Game of Thrones.

It’s probably not that surprising that the medieval fantasy comes with a huge price tag and it’s definitely not alone.

Whether it’s due to a well paid cast or the fact they film in exotic locations, here are some of the TV shows that cost millions to produce each episode:

GAME OF THRONES

It’s arguably the biggest show on TV at the moment and it also comes with the biggest price tag.

According to Entertainment Weekly, each episode in season six cost a staggering $A13.9 million to produce.

Their budget was probably stretched a little when the show staged what Game of Thrones writer/producer Bryan Cogman is describing as “the biggest action sequence yet”.

“We’ve always wanted to get to a place — story-wise and budget-wise and time-wise and resource-wise — where we would be able to do a proper battle, with one army on one side, one army on another side,” he said to EW.

The fight scene will air later this season.

LISTEN TO THE GAME OF THRONES PODCAST

Game of Thrones has won 26 Primetime Emmy Awards.

FRIENDS

With the sitcom’s six main stars all getting paid $US1 million an episode in the tenth and final season, it was never going to be a cheap show to produce.

According to the BBC, NBC agreed to pay Warner Bros Television $US10 million for each of the 18 episodes in the final season in 2004.

If you adjust that for inflation, each episode would cost $US12.7 million in 2016, which is $A17.6 million.

And here’s a fun fact, each of the Friends stars reportedly rakes in $A27.7 million per year thanks to the sitcom’s syndication.

Friends: Courtney Cox-Arquette with Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer.

ROME

The epic historical drama told the story of both illustrious and ordinary Romans and was set in the last days of the Roman Republic.

It debuted in 2005 but only lasted two seasons because it was simply too expensive to make.

The first season cost $US110 million to produce which worked out to $US9.1 million per episode.

Adjusted for inflation, each episode would cost $A15.5 million to make in 2016.

Part of the reason the show was so expensive was because they built a five-acre set in Italy which reportedly cost $A15.5 million.

There were rumours of a Rome movie in the works, but they remain just rumours.

BAND OF BROTHERS

The TV miniseries about the 101st Airborne division’s experience in WWII boasted Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg as its executive producers.

Together, the Hollywood heavyweights managed to convince HBO to pay for all 10 episodes.

The bill came in at $US125 million for the miniseries which means each episode cost more than $12 million.

“I’m not saying they (HBO executives) didn’t bat an eye,’’ Hanks said to the New York Times in 2001.

“Oh, they did bat an eye. But the reality is this was expensive. You had to have deep pockets. And HBO has deep pockets.’’

Adjusted for inflation, each episode would cost $A23.6 million to make in 2016.

The miniseries took 10 months to film in Hertfordshire, England.

MARCO POLO

The second season of the Netflix show about the famed explorer’s adventures is set to be released in July.

Netflix, which refuses to release details about how many people watch its shows, were obviously happy with how the first season fared in 2014.

And they’d want to be happy too, given they paid $A12.4 million for each of the first 10 episodes, according to the New York Times.

Marco Polo was filmed in Italy, Kazakhstan and Malaysia.