At the height of fame for “Three’s Company,” Suzanne Somers pushed to be paid the same as her male counterpart, John Ritter. When the ABC sitcom began in 1976, Ritter was the bigger name, which is why he was given the top-billed spot. However, as the show went on, both Somers and Joyce DeWitt proved their stardom as Chrissy Snow and Janet Wood. It was after Season 5 that Somers requested to be compensated the same as her co-star, which would have her salary jump from $30,000 an episode to $150,000. In 2020, Somers shared with Entertainment Tonight, “[W]e went in to renegotiate for year six because we had to, my contract was up. And they fired me.”
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At the time, Somers was made to look greedy, which caused tension within the cast, especially with Ritter. “I think he irrationally got mad at me because he lost his sparring partner. I would be mad too and there was no going back,” Somers admitted. The drama between the two hurt Somers, but the former castmates were able to mend their broken relationship. In 2003, Ritter asked Somers to guest star on an episode of “8 Simple Rules.” Somers shared that Ritter began the conversation saying, “I forgive you,” before going into his pitch. While she eventually said no to the offer, the two did plan to find a project in the future. Unfortunately, Ritter died on set a month later.
