Netflix's Orange Is the New Black was an early indicator of how lopsided the streaming economy would be, as 10 actors from the show detail tiny residual incomes
The innovative and daring show was a worldwide hit for Netflix, but some of the actors say that they were never fairly compensated.
New YorkerMichael Schulman
Context & Ripple Effects
Orange Is the New Black was more than a hit — its success is what pushed Netflix to build the Black content catalog it became known for after 2015. The show also premiered in the era when Netflix replaced traditional syndication with global-exclusive streaming, collapsing the rerun market that residuals were built on.
That history collides with the present: Netflix has become the avatar for the striking writers' complaints over eroded working conditions and disrupted residual pay, and ten OITNB actors now supply the same grievance from the cast side — tiny checks for one of the platform's defining shows.
First-order effects
The actors' accounts give the WGA's residual argument a high-profile cast-level data point, strengthening the case that Netflix's all-you-can-stream model pays talent once while the platform captures recurring value.
Second-order effects
Studios negotiating with striking unions face pressure to replace streaming 'buyouts' with usage-based or audience-based residual formulas, raising the cost of exclusive-content deals across the industry.
Third-order effects
If buyouts give way to performance-linked pay, streaming economics shift toward compensating talent on engagement rather than flat fees — a structural change in how content budgets are priced, especially as Nielsen data showing Netflix at 7-8% of US TV viewing makes per-view accounting technically feasible.
The trend: The streaming economy is moving from flat-fee talent buyouts toward engagement-linked compensation, with the current strikes forcing the industry to rebuild the residual system it dismantled.
This is absolutely infuriating. — There is still plenty of money to go around in mass media. Actors on hit shows should be able to afford the box sets of their work! — https://www.newyorker.com/... [image]
This is a great article explaining how SAG day rate and residuals work. For a show like ‘Friends’ that airs on network, day rate was $500/day and residuals for a person that appeared on one episode in a speaking part could be as much as 50k a year. …
This article is staggering and infuriating. Orange Is The New Black is one of the most popular TV series of all time. The cast members had to keep their day jobs during it. Their residuals are less than $25. https://www.newyorker.com/...
Several actors say Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos boasted at a party about how more people watched ‘ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK’ than ‘GAME OF THRONES’. This made the cast question why their residual pay was so low — “I [only] get $20!” said one star. (Source: https://www.newyorker.com/...…
Everybody who is recommending this piece about the cast of ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK is right. I'm sure a lot of people got rich off Netflix's initial push into originals, but it sure wasn't these folks. https://www.newyorker.com/...
House of Cards got all the hype but OITNB was the show that really set the template not Netflix—not just in terms of subject and approach but apparently in shortchanging the people who made it
@MJSchulman @NewYorker The entertainment business is inherently risky. It used to be that “other people's money” took the risk. Now that streamers are borrowing to produce, they're shoving the risks onto the creatives.
NEW from me: With a SAG strike looming, some actors from “Orange Is the New Black” are speaking out about how they were never fairly compensated for a formative show of the streaming revolution. https://www.newyorker.com/...