'Modern Family' cast settles contract dispute

By Carolyn Sung - The six adult stars of "Modern Family" seemed ready for legal war with production company 20th Century Fox Television, but CNN's confirmed that the dispute is over.

After filing a suit alleging that their contracts with Fox TV are illegal, actors Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Ty Burrell and Ed O'Neill have reached an agreement with the production company.

A rep for Fox declined to comment further, but The Hollywood Reporter cites sources who claim that the cast will receive the higher salaries they were rumored to be angling for with their lawsuit.

Vergara, Bowen, Tyler Ferguson, Stonestreet and Burrell were all said to be aiming for contracts that would yield a salary higher than the rumored $65,000 an episode they were estimated to have earned in season 3. O'Neill is reportedly being paid on a different level than his co-stars, earning an estimated $105,000 an episode, but he joined the complaint filed by his cast mates last week in a perceived show of solidarity.

THR reports that the six actors have all "agreed in principle" to new contracts, ones that will reportedly offer $170,000 to $175,000 an episode for the upcoming season, including bonuses. These sources also whispered to THR that the cast's salaries will increase up to around $350,000 per episode in the show's eighth season.

It's been reported that the five actors who initiated the lawsuit will also get a bit of the back-end profits for the first time. While these rumored figures wouldn't be a huge increase from what O'Neill was presumed to be earning, it's been speculated that the former "Married with Children" star has been offered a larger piece of that back-end pot.

It's rumored that in exchange, the cast will drop the lawsuit and will also add a year to their contracts, which already enlisted their services for seven years.

On Monday, the actors were hard at work on season 4: Both Vergara and Stonestreet tweeted about being back on the "Modern Family" set, with Stonestreet adding, "Grateful 4 my job. Cant wait 2 c everyone!"

The Emmy-winning - and once again Emmy-nominated - "Modern Family" is scheduled to return to ABC on September 26.