*Ever wonder who the top paid TV stars are, and where your favorite stars rank? Variety talked to actors, executives, agents, managers, attorneys, and more connected to the entertainment industry about how much stars are making these days.
It should come as no shock to learn that there’s a huge pay gap between white actors and black actors.
Star salaries range from $1 million an episode for the main players of CBS’s “Big Bang Theory” to $20,000 per episode for Trai Byers, Jussie Smollett and Bryshere Y. Gray, the actors who play the Lyon kids on Fox’s “Empire.” The actors who play their parents, Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard, earn $175,000 per episode.
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The 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, Press Room, Los Angeles, America – 30 Jan 2016
“black-ish” star Emmy-winner Anthony Anderson gets $100,000 an episode, while his Emmy-winning co-star Tracee Ellis Ross earns $80,000 per episode. Viola Davis, the Emmy Award-winning star of “How to Get Away with Murder,” and Kerry Washington, the Emmy-nominated star of “Scandal,” both earn $250,000 pr episode.
Here’s a look at the biggest salaries:
$1,000,000 — Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)
$1,000,000 — Kaley Cuoco, “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)
$1,000,000 — Johnny Galecki, “The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)
$750,000 — Lauren Graham, “Gilmore Girls” (Netflix)
$750,000 — Alexis Bledel, “Gilmore Girls” (Netflix)
$525,000 — Mark Harmon, “NCIS” (CBS)
$500,000 — Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards” (Netflix)
$500,000 — Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones” (HBO)
$500,000 — Lena Headey, “Game of Thrones” (HBO)
$500,000 — Kit Harington, “Game of Thrones” (HBO)
$500,000 — Emilia Clarke, “Game of Thrones” (HBO)
$500,000 — Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau, “Game of Thrones” (HBO)
$450,000 — Claire Danes, “Homeland” (Showtime)
$450,000 — Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order” (NBC)
$400,000 – Dwayne Johnson, “Ballers” (HBO)
$350,000 — Drew Barrymore, “Santa Clarita Diet” (Netflix)
Find out who hauls in the biggest salaries across comedy, drama, and reality/news/talk series at Variety.
