Lauren Graham has been "paid in love" but not residuals from Gilmore Girls on Netflix

No surprise there: Netflix breaking the business model of traditional television is what led to the writers and actors strikes of 2023. The strike wins offered marginal improvements, but the rules are still murky for shows that are licensed on a streamer (like Gilmore Girls) and for shows that were launched before the strike (like Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life). The deals struck between the unions and the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) was for success-based residuals, meaning creatives from the highest-performing streaming projects get bonuses, as opposed to the classic system where a creative gets a check any time their project reruns on traditional TV. 

Still, Lauren Graham is “not sick of talking about it at all,” she told Kimmel. That’s despite how large Lorelai Gilmore has loomed over her career: it took her “years, actually, transitioning out of [Gilmore Girls],” she admitted in an interview with The A.V. Club in 2016. “I went and did a musical. I went and did a couple movies, but it stuck with me for a long time until maybe even starting Parenthood and realizing I was on a different—it was our whole lives for that time, good times and tougher times. It’s like going to medical school, I imagine. [Laughs.] But, you know, life, that’s all it is: transitioning from one thing to the next.” 

The beloved series celebrates a major milestone this year: “It doesn’t feel like 25 years at all, and it’s something I feel super grateful for, and it’s also just kind of strange that new generations keep finding it,” she said on the Tonight Show last month. Asked if she’d reprise the role for a third time, Graham said, “I always say yes, because it’s the best part I ever had and I love doing it. … It was the perfect material at the perfect time with the perfect writer, and it just means so much to me.”