For many actors and comedians working tirelessly to hone their craft, landing a role as a series-regular on a television series is the Holy Grail. A series-regular role on a television series presents a forum for the actor or comedian to be seen by a wide audience and a role on a hit show can lead to a long and successful career on the screen as well as the stage. Thus, it is important to understand the deal that you will be asked to make when being considered for a series-regular role.After you have successfully auditioned for a role and have been called back, and the television studio then narrows its choices down to a few individuals for a particular role, they will ask you to sign a contract in order to test for the role. This contract is what is referred to as a “test option”. The test option grants the studio the “option” to have you act in the pilot, as well as additional options to have you act in multiple seasons of the series. If the studio and network cast you in the role, the studio will then exercise its option to have you act in the pilot.
You will be required to sign the test option before you find out whether or not you have been cast in the role. Other than in a few rare circumstances, you will be required to sign the option agreement before you will be permitted to test. The reason for this is, if the studio were to wait until after it had made its casting choice, they would be at a serious disadvantage in the contract negotiation. If they were to wait until you had been cast and you knew that you were their one and only choice, you could demand an outrageous salary and make various other demands. So the studios require everyone to negotiate and sign an agreement that covers the pilot and often up to six or seven seasons of the series prior to them even offering the job to you. In that you do not know whether or not you will be cast in the role at that point in time, and because the studio often requires the contract to be negotiated and signed within a few days, or even a few hours in some cases, they have a tremendous amount of leverage.
Because the studio has such a great amount of bargaining power, it is important to have good representation, who can help you recognize when you do have leverage, which may depend on how much the studio and/or network wants you for the series, how many others are up for the part, the importance of your role to the series and how your voice and persona fits within the tone of the series. It is not always easy to ascertain when you have leverage, but with a good team of representatives around you, they can help to maximize those situations in which you do. In the right scenario, and with knowledge and understanding of the test option process, you can still walk away with a good deal.
