West Wing cast 'win dispute'

The West Wing: 18 Emmy nominations this year

The four main supporting actors on US TV drama series The West Wing have settled a pay dispute after Warner Brothers agreed to more than double their salaries, reports said.

Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, Bradley Whitford and John Spencer had abandoned rehearsals but avoided all-out strike by turning up for the first day's filming of the new series, according to Trade newspaper Variety..

Allison Janney and Martin Sheen embrace at the Emmy Awards ceremony

The four have now "agreed to stay" with the highly successful show, which airs on Channel 4 in the UK, for another year.

Neither Warner Brothers Television or the actors' attorney Peter Nelson would comment on the exact terms of the settlement, but reports suggest they had sought as much as $90,000 (£63,000) an episode.

"What they are asking is merely for Warner Bros to make good on what it promised when they made their original deals," Nelson told Variety.

Warner initially offered to double their salaries to $65,000 (£44,232) per episode, with that number jumping to around $200,000 (£140,000) by the show's seventh season, it was reported.

The West Wing's third season airs in the US in the autumn.

The four cast members had believed they were "underpaid" in comparison with other cast members such as Martin Sheen and Rob Lowe.

The West Wing's creators won a TV Critics Association award last week

Their demands appeared to be fairly modest in comparison with the pay demanded by other top television stars.

Frasier's Kelsey Grammer is rumoured to be paid more than $1.6m (£1.1m) per episode, and the stars of Friends earn about $750,000 (£535,000) per episode.

The West Wing has received 18 Emmy nominations for its second series. Allison Janney and Richard Schiff, two of the actors involved in the pay row, won Emmys last year for their roles.

The four involved in the pay dispute all received nominations in the drama category of the Emmy awards.

Janney and Schiff won best supporting actress and actor in a drama prizes last year.