The 15 TV shows that cost Netflix the most money

While the exact practice of determining the worth of a tech company is a form of economic voodoo that has historically proven to be fairly unreliable, estimates suggest that Netflix is worth somewhere around $70 billion. Now, while that might not be an exact figure, it’s a number that should let you know that the world’s most popular streaming service has money to burn.

While we have no doubt that a fair bit of that money goes to things like overhead, payroll, and such other fun corporate expenses, Netflix can certainly afford to spend a good deal of that money on producing original content and acquiring popular shows. So that’s exactly what they do.

Netflix drops quite a bit of money every year on new shows to add to their service. While you may lament the loss of a certain program or Netflix’s decision to not renew a certain beloved program, in order to really appreciate how expensive it is for the service to maintain a respectable roster of films and shows, you need to look at exactly how much the most expensive Netflix shows cost. In doing so, you may find that your $9.99 a month is actually a greater value than you thought.

These are the 15 TV shows that cost Netflix a ton of money:

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15. "The Walking Dead"— $1.35 million an episode

The details on this one are a bit vague. For instance, we know that Netflix secured the exclusive streaming rights to "The Walking Dead" in 2011. At the time, neither side openly disclosed the figures behind this deal, but a few industry outlets did some digging and came up with the seemingly generous figure of $1.35 million an episode. This estimate operates under the assumption that the deal was only for episodes available at the time (which was about the first two seasons) and that later arrangements weren’t made to include subsequent episodes.

Even still, that deal would have been worth a little over $25 million. That puts it just ahead of several Netflix shows that just hit the $25 million mark, including "Narcos," which was “held ransom” by Escobar’s brother for $1 billion. That’s one exorbitant fee Netflix didn’t pay.

14. "Scrubs"— $26 million a year

"Scrubs" is one those shows that a variety of television viewers absolutely love. Fans of smart writing dig the show’s clever jabs and nonsensical detours from reality. Medical drama viewers enjoy Scrubs’ surprisingly heartfelt moments of genuine emotion. Pretty much everyone seems to dig the show’s memorable cast of characters.

So, it’s not too surprising that Netflix would pay a high fee for the rights to stream NBC’s hit comedy, but the reported $26 million they pony up every year for the rights to host the entire series is an eye-popping number. Is it worth it? Well, every time a subscriber says "Oh, they have 'Scrubs'" or someone compares the price of the full "Scrubs" series set to the cost of a Netflix subscription, Netflix probably finds a way to justify the high cost.

13. Netflix's Marvel series — $40 million a season

This entry is a bit tricky to put an exact price tag on. Technically, you might want to add a few dollars to the total of each of these shows, given that Netflix only gained the right to produce them after they paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million for the rights to Disney, Marvel, and Lucasfilm properties. That being the case, you could make an argument that these are actually the most expensive shows in the Netflix lineup.

However, as it’s not really feasible to break down that $300 million into Marvel-sized chunks, we’re going with the reported $40 million production budget each Marvel Netflix show reportedly costs. There might be a little variation in the exact figures, and "The Defenders" will likely end up being the most expensive of them all, but these are still some pricey shows, no matter how you slice it.