The 10 Most Expensive TV Shows of All Time

Best known for succeeding Steven Moffat on Doctor Who, Chris Chibnall also co-ran the Starz series Camelot, a historical drama fantasy about King Arthur's adventures. Often compared to Game of Thrones, the racy show received early praise, even nabbing an Emmy nomination.

But its success was short-lived and quickly fizzled out. Starz canceled the series after one season, attributing its decision to production scheduling challenges within the star-studded cast, which included Joseph Fiennes, Eva Green, and Jamie Campbell Bower. Chibnall himself had left the show because of other writing obligations, claiming he did not know about the show's cancellation.

It's no secret that Netflix puts a great sum of money into developing premium content, spending $6.3 billion in original shows and acquired programming in 2017. That's why Netflix was the perfect playground for the Wachowski sisters, who had worked on the exorbitantly complex fantasy film Cloud Atlas, which had a $102 million budget.

In their ambitious show Sense8, eight strangers across the world find themselves emotionally and mentally connected. Given the scope and beautiful production of the series, it cost Netflix $9 million per episode. The series was canceled after two seasons, but Netflix wrapped things up with a movie finale to appease fans.

Honestly, we expected Game of Thrones to be further up on this list, given its intricate set design and huge cast. The show puts a heavy emphasis on production value in order to excite and enthrall its fans, and by its sixth season, the show averaged about $10 million an episode.

Speaking with Deadline, cinematographer Robert McLachlan shared that the fantasy series would be spending more money than ever per episode in its seventh and eighth seasons. "Before, we'd have one or two showstopping, major episodes per season. This season, probably at least half of them are whoppers. They're not going to disappoint," the filmmaker said.

Like Camelot, Rome has often been compared to the wildly popular Game of Thrones. Shot in Italy, the show adapted Julius Caesar's civil war of 49 BC against the traditionalist faction in the Roman Senate, touting complex set designs, beautiful costumes, and a well-stacked cast. Unfortunately, critical acclaim was not enough to keep it afloat. HBO let go of the show after its second season in order to save money on production resources in Italy.

Creator Bruno Heller admitted that his series paved the way for Game of Thrones' success. "They learned a lot from a business commercial sense, what not to do. Rome was the first show HBO shot out of country with large budget that was period. The mistakes we made are the mistakes Game of Thrones learned from," the writer and director explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

You might be scratching your head over this one. It's pretty hard to imagine how a true-to-life half-hour sitcom like Friends could cost so much to make. Well, each of the six cast members figured out their worth and brought home $1 million each per episode by the last few seasons. In 2002, the entire cast famously worked together to negotiate a deal so each actor would be paid equally — or else they would all leave the show.

The short-lived Netflix musical series was dropped before it even saw a second installation, becoming the first Netflix show to be canceled after one season. (The first season was separated into two parts, which dropped months apart.) Detailing the birth of hip-hop, it was directed by Baz Luhrmann, who's known for his exaggerated and colorful style in movies like Moulin Rouge! and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Luhrmann's signature cinematography added a few heavy dollars to the budget, but the most expensive part of the $120 million production actually came from using licensed hip-hop, soul, and R&B music.

Before the days of Grey's Anatomy and Chicago Med, there was ER, TV's longest-running medical drama. The show kept NBC viewership thriving, largely thanks to George Clooney's presence as Dr. Doug Ross. In order to keep Clooney around, NBC paid a whopping $13 million an episode for a few years. Luckily, the show later trimmed down its budget and managed to stay on air through its 15th season.

Executive-produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, who had collaborated on Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers dramatizes the history of the Easy Company, which was assigned to the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division during World War II. Before Hanks and Spielberg worked together for the sequel series The Pacific, Band of Brothers was the most expensive miniseries ever made with a budget of $125 million. Did the creators get a bang for the millions of bucks that they spent on the show? Yup. The 2001 miniseries won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best miniseries.

It's really no surprise that this highbrow drama about English royalty is the most expensive ongoing series of all time, with a $130 million price tag per season. The cast is full of seasoned, well-known actors, including John Lithgow, Claire Foy, Jared Harris, and Matt Smith — with Helena Bonham Carter on the way, might we add. Between the show's cast and its lavish tiaras, coronation gowns, and royal scepters, rolling out the big bucks (pounds?) was inevitable.

Lithgow, who portrays Winston Churchill, revealed that the production isn't necessarily as glamorous as the final product. "We were in drafty, old, rundown, superannuated stately homes outside of London, where they had taken over the interior in order to made it look extraordinary lavish," the American actor told The Daily Beast.

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg teamed up once again to work together on The Pacific in 2010. The miniseries follows the experiences of three Marines — Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge, and John Basilone — who served in the 1st Marine Division of the Pacific War.

Like its predecessor, it received praise from critics, bringing home eight Emmy wins out of 24 nominations. Its Emmys didn't come from thin air. The Pacific is the most expensive miniseries of all time, with a budget of $217 million; $5 million alone went to a particularly grisly scene during a battle in Peleliu, where the 1st Marine Division was attacked by 11,000 Japanese soldiers. The scene took four days to shoot and involved 300 actors working at a beach in Queensland, Australia.