The Big Bang Theory season 8

Production

In March 2014, the show got the green light for three more seasons, including an eighth, running through the 2016–17 TV year. The previous month, CBS boss Leslie Moonves revealed that the first half-dozen episodes of season eight would shift to a different night because the network picked up Thursday Night Football. By May 2014, CBS announced at its upfront event that the season would start on Mondays, then move back to Thursdays once football wrapped up.

Filming was originally set to kick off on July 30, 2014, but that got pushed back when the five lead actors started renegotiating their contracts. Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, and Kaley Cuoco asked for about $1 million per episode plus a bigger cut of the show's profits, while Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar handled their talks separately. On August 4, the trio signed new three-year deals worth $1 million per episode, with an option for a fourth year, along with larger ownership stakes, signing bonuses, production deals, and advances on future earnings.

The next day, Helberg and Nayyar inked their own raises, landing in the mid-six-figure range per episode, a big jump from the roughly $100,000 each they had been making. The first table read for season eight finally happened on August 6, 2014.

Reception

The season premiere "The Locomotion Interruption" and the second episode "The Junior Professor Solution" received mixed reviews. MaryAnn Sleasman of TV.com praised character developments, writing that there was a lot to be excited about with some central characters more comfortable around each other. Emily Gould of Salon criticized the humor, stating she watched seven episodes without expelling air forcefully from her nose in response to any jokes. Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club also criticized the humor, writing that many jokes were tired and plotlines were standard sitcom material.