Brendan O’Carroll has revealed the reason why he turned town $100million from a US network.
The talented comic is already a multi-millionaire thanks to his BBC sitcom Mrs. Brown’s Boys, but he showed no interest in elevating his financial status even further when US network NBC came knocking.
The network offered Brendan a whopping $100 million to bring Agnes Brown stateside, but he declined their offer, as he isn’t interested in money.
“NBC offered me ridiculous money — $100million (around €92million) — to do the series in the States.” he told the Irish Sun’s TV Magazine.
“It would have been for three seasons of 24 episodes each, but during those seasons, I couldn’t tour, I would hardly see my grandkids and I’d have to work with a team in a writers’ room that I would basically be locked in.”
Brendan, who is well known for his charitable work around Dublin, briefly considered taking the deal so that he could help fund a project for the homeless. But, ultimately, he decided to decline the offer because it would conflict with his BBC contract and he’d have to incur a hefty tax bill.
“I will tell no lie, I was going between ‘I don’t f***ing want to do this’ to ‘100 f***ing million.'” he said.
“We have a goal to build a block of apartments with a clinic in Dublin for homeless people, and $100million would not only pay for that, it would keep it going for ten years. But when I broke it down, I figured half of it would go on taxes, so that’s $50million, I wouldn’t be able to tour or work for the BBC, so that takes it to $35million, which over three years works out at $11million a year.
“We can f***ing earn that without having to change our lives.”
The Dubliner’s current contract with the BBC keeps him tied up with the station until 2020, but Brendan doesn’t see himself being tempted away by any other station, as he is not motivated by the money.
“We have never done TV for money.” he said.
“I am not even joking. I don’t even know what we get paid by the BBC. I honestly have no idea.
“We are very lucky because we do the live tours and that has made us financially very stable. Touring is our life and I would drop everything before I stop touring.”
