Just how much are the casts of 'The Conners' and other shows earning? Spoiler: It's a lot.
Well, this would have gone a long way at the Lanford Lunchbox.
The three big stars of the Roseanne reboot without Roseanne Barr, The Conners — John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and Sara Gilbert — are each pulling in a cool $375,000 per episode of the sitcom, according to a new look at the salaries of lead TV stars in Variety.
The trade magazine reported Tuesday that salaries of big-name TV actors in general are climbing. A new California law that prohibits employers from asking what an employee made in a previous job — meant to end the well-documented practice of paying smaller salaries to women and people of color — is cited as one of the reasons. Other factors include the increasing number of shows and distributors and movie stars’ willingness to go to the small screen.
The report found that Javier Bardem is making the most on TV: $1.2 million per episode for a planned mini-series on Amazon that Steven Spielberg is set to direct.
Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon and Friends vet Jennifer Aniston have some of the heftiest paychecks on the small screen, too, for their upcoming Amazon dramedy, which doesn’t have a title yet. Their salary is reportedly $1.1 million per episode each for acting. They will each earn an additional undisclosed fee for serving as producers on the show. Co-star Steve Carell’s salary clocks in at $600,000 per episode.
Elisabeth Moss’s paycheck for The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu is $1 million per episode, while Julia Roberts will bring in $600,000 for each installment she appears in for the new Amazon drama Homecoming.
Stranger Things cast members are all earning sizable amounts, some more than others. Winona Ryder, David Harbour, and Millie Bobby Brown are all bringing home $350,000 per episode, while newcomers Sadie Sink (Max) and Dacre Montgomery (Billy) make $150,000. Actors Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Natalia Dyer, and Charlie Heaton fall right in the middle, each earning $250,000 per episode of the Netflix show.
On the lower end of the spectrum are The Flash star Grant Gustin, who picks up $100,000 per episode and Arrow superhero Stephen Amell with $125,000 per show. The leads in the cast of Riverdale — KJ Apa, Camila Mendes, Lili Reinhart, and Cole Sprouse — earn strikingly smaller paychecks of $40,000 each for each episode. It’s worth noting that the actors on all of those shows crank out upwards of 22 installments each season for the CW. The Stranger Things crew over at Netflix produces just 10 episodes per season, which makes up for a bit of the difference.
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