Does anyone remember the days when a television actor would make $100,000 an episode and that was just insane? How about when Seinfeld kicked it up to $1 million in the late 90s? The latest kings and queen of salary earnings are the big three on The Big Bang Theory. Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, and Kelly Cuoco will have earned a reported $139 million plus after the latest contract negotiations. Those totals would be for 12 seasons. On average that would put them at over $10 million per season and over the lifespan of the show put them at around $650,000 per episode. Keep in mind this is over the entire 12 season run. They’re all making over $1 million per episode right now.
Recently the big three as well as Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg reportedly took pay cuts so that Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch could earn higher salaries. The top earners – Cuoco, Galecki and Parsons – will have appeared in all twelve seasons, starting out at $60,000 a show for the initial three years when the series hit the air 10 years ago. The trio received a raise up to $200,000 each per episode for seasons four, five and six, before getting $350,000 a piece from CBS for their seventh season. According to the Daily Mail
Season eight in 2014 brought a massive windfall, as all three of the main players, as well as series regulars Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar, were bumped up to a cool $1 million per episode. The tabulation also factored in reported $100,000 deductions that Cuoco, Galecki, Parsons, Helberg and Nayyar have agreed to, to ensure co-stars Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik get raises to around $500,000 per show. Not factored in were potential syndication proceeds the performers could take home.
Going 12 season as a comedy is almost unheard of. You’d have to go back to shows like Friends and Seinfeld to see shows that made it that far. 12 seasons would put The Big Bang Theory past those two. And let’s not forget, the cast is signed through 12 seasons. That doesn’t mean there won’t be more.
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