The casts of Friends, Sex and the City and Two and a Half Men changed the game for TV stars by making more than $1 million per episode of their classic shows.
While TV was once seen as second-rate in comparison to Hollywood blockbusters, the 1990s changed everything with the dawn of mega-sitcoms that commanded huge price tags for their A-list stars.
The rise of streaming has only bolstered budgets for TV, meaning stars such as Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon are making record-breaking fees for their latest projects.
Keep scrolling for a look at some of the highest-paid actors in the TV history, including plenty of surprises:
Sex and the City
Sarah Jessica Parker’s promotion to executive producer of Sex and the City, as well as being its lead star, for the final three seasons boosted her salary significantly. Reports suggest that HBO was paying SJP over $3 million per episode by the time Sex and the City ended.
The money kept rolling in as SATC was turned into a movie franchise, with Parker reportedly earning $15 million for the first film and $20 million for the sequel. When Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis returned for the sequel show And Just Like That…, they earned $10 million each for a 10-episode season.
Sex and the City executive producer Michael Patrick King spoke on the “Origins” podcast in 2018 about the way Parker’s star-power was crucial to the show’s success.
“The show doesn’t exist if Sarah Jessica wasn’t the blonde star of the show, that’s No. 1,” he said. “Kim [Cattrall] was not at the height of her career, Kristin was under her in terms of notability, Cynthia was a theater actress — and their contracts reflected that status.”
The producer went on, “As the show progressed, the characters, everybody grew, it became a family. Kristin, Cynthia and Sarah Jessica became one group, and Kim never joined mentally. Kristin and Cynthia went in the light, they became those two ladies, they understood it was Sarah Jessica’s name, look at the posters.”
The Morning Show
Former Friends costars Aniston and Witherspoon (in case you forgot, Witherspoon played the sister of Aniston’s Rachel!) reunited in 2019 for Apple TV+’s signature drama series The Morning Show, in which they played feuding coanchors on a news show.
It was reported in 2019 Apple was spending $15 million per episode as part of an overall $300 million deal to produce the first two seasons. Aniston and Witherspoon earned $2 million each per episode, for both starring in and executive producing The Morning Show.
Apple’s huge spending on The Morning Show paid off as it received 27 Emmy Award nominations and became the streamer’s second-most-watched series, behind Ted Lasso. It’s no surprise that Apple repeatedly renewed The Morning Show, with a fourth season now in the works.
Witherspoon told The Hollywood Reporter that she was perplexed by the backlash to her and Aniston’s Morning Show paychecks.
“There seemed to be a resentment, as if we weren’t worth it or it was bothersome, and I thought, ‘Why is that bothersome?’” she recalled.
Witherspoon continued, “I guarantee these companies are real smart, and if they agree to pay us, they’re doing it for a reason. They probably had a lot of lawyers and a lot of business people decide on that number because they knew that they were going to make more than that back. Does it bother people when Kobe Bryant or LeBron James make their contract?”
Two and a Half Men
Charlie Sheen’s hefty $2 million-per episode contract for CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men made it all the more shocking when he went to war with the series’ cocreator, Chuck Lorre, in 2011.
Sheen stopped showing up to work and then publicly demanded a 50% raise, so Lorre and CBS responded by firing him and banning him from entering the production lot where Two and a Half Men filmed. Ashton Kutcher was hired to replace Sheen for Two and a Half Men’s remaining four seasons.
Sheen admitted to Deadline in 2023 that Two and a Half Men could have continued for another decade if he hadn’t “f—ed everything up.”
“We could have done it as long as we wanted to,” he said. “So they say, don’t live in regret, but you have to honor it. You have to learn from it. Well…”
The actor admitted he “knew the rules” of starring in a sitcom from the outset but lost perspective as Two and a Half Men became more successful.
“It’s like we practice all week and then Friday night was game night and you got to play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the back,” he noted. “And then, somewhere along the way, I decided that the rules no longer applied to me. And that was not fair to the system that was in place.”
Everybody Loves Raymond
When Everybody Loves Raymond aired its last two seasons between 2003 and 2005, Ray Romano became the highest-paid actor on TV with a salary of $1.8 million per episode, or nearly $40 million per season. Romano topped the previous record-holder, Kelsey Grammer, making $1.6 million per episode for Frasier.
Romano proved his dedication to his work by foregoing a large fee when he joined Parenthood in its fourth season in 2012. The actor told TV Insider that he offered to take less money just because he loved the NBC family drama.
“I was a big fan of Parenthood and I actually asked to be on it,” he said. “I knew [producer Jason Katims], and after the season 3 finale, I emailed him and said, ‘Congrats.’ Joking I said, ‘Hey, Men of a Certain Age has just gotten canceled… I’m available.’ And he emailed me back and said, ‘We could never afford you.’ I said to him, ‘Yes, you can. Whatever my agent tells you, you come to me. I will make sure you can afford it.’
He added, “My agent called me a week later [saying], ‘Did you tell Jason Katims you would work for less money?’ And I go, ‘Yes, I did.’ I wasn’t doing it for the money at that time. I was doing it because I was a fan and [I wanted the] experience. And it was a great experience.”
Frasier
Grammer was once the highest-paid actor on TV by commanding a $1.6 million-per episode contract for Cheers spinoff Frasier. The episodic sum grew to around $2 million for the short-lived revival of Frasier on Paramount+ in 2023.
Grammer expressed hope in a 2024 Toronto Star interview that the new Frasier would last at least a decade.
“That’s sort of a knock-on-wood statement, I suppose,” he admitted.
Unfortunately for Grammer, Paramount canceled the Frasier revival in January 2025. He has since campaigned for another streaming service to save the show.
“There’s a better home for it,” Grammer told The New York Post in March 2025. “I think they gave it sort of a good try, but they weren’t particularly passionate about the project. I mean, obviously, they didn’t really promote or spend much time on it.”
The Terminal List
Chris Pratt isn’t only raking in cash from his leading roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Super Mario franchises. Pratt is also receiving an impressive pay check for his Prime Video streaming series The Terminal List.
Variety reported in August 2021 that Pratt was earning a jaw-dropping $1.4 million for every episode of the action thriller series.
Based on Jack Carr’s 2018 novel of the same name, The Terminal List casts Pratt as a former Navy SEAL who returns home from war with conflicting memories about the deaths of his platoon. The Terminal List ranked on Prime Video’s Top 10 list of its streaming content within two weeks of release.
Amazon has doubled down on its investment in The Terminal List by renewing it for a second season in February 2023 and commissioning a prequel series based around Taylor Kitsch’s character.
Home Improvement
Tim Allen made $1.25 million for playing Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor in Home Improvement’s final season, but it was his lofty salary that ultimately contributed to the show ending.
Allen’s costar Patricia Richardson revealed to The Los Angeles Times in 2024 that she caught wind of ABC offering to pay him $2 million per episode to return for a ninth season, which was double what they offered her.
Richardson admitted she was ready for Home Improvement to end, so she forced ABC ‘s hand by demanding the same money as Allen to return.
“I knew that Disney would in no way pay me that much. That was my way to say ‘no’ and was a little bit of a flip-off to Disney,” she said. “I’d been there all this time, and they never even paid me a third of what Tim was making, and I was working my ass off. I was a big reason why women were watching.”
ABC declined to meet Richardson’s pay demands and Home Improvement ended in 1999.
Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld was one of the few TV stars to walk away from a hit show at the peak of its success, after making $1 million an episode.
Seinfeld told The Howard Stern Show in 2013 that NBC was so desperate for him to return for a 10th season that he was offered $110 million.
“I could have got more than that,” he admitted, adding: “To be honest … the love affair between the people that were making the show and the audience was so intense, it was so white hot, I had to respect that.”
“I could not go to that point where it starts to age and wither, and it doesn’t take long,” he acknowledged.
Seinfeld’s final episode, “The Finale,” was watched by a staggering 75 million viewers May 14, 1998.
Friends
Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer each were paid $1 million an episode for the final two seasons of Friends between 2002 and 2004.
The six core Friends cast members negotiated with NBC as a united front so they’d all get paid the same wages, thus eliminating any potential jealousy from spreading within the group.
During an appearance on The Howard Stern Show in 2021, Aniston argued that the cast should have been paid the same because they were “all doing the exact same amount of work.”
“We all felt that way. I thought it was the most important thing — as we all did — that we all were equal in every single way,” Cox agreed. “That was the first time that people had all stuck together in a cast. I think it was scary, probably, for productions after that.”
The Big Bang Theory
Like the Friends cast before them, Big Bang’s Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco negotiated together in 2014 to make $1 million per half-hour episode for seasons 8 through 10.
When it came time for the trio to re-up with CBS in 2017, the stars and castmates Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg all agreed to take $100,000 salary cuts per episode so their costars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch could get substantial raises.
Parsons opted to leave The Big Bang Theory in 2018, with costar Galecki admitting the rest of the cast felt “blindsided” by the news.
“I was shocked. We were just blindsided that day,” Galecki said. “And not necessarily shocked by Jim’s decision, but that he hadn’t had that conversation with his castmates first to prepare us. So yes, it could have been handled better. We’re a family; have a conversation. And I don’t even disagree with how Jim felt, because in many ways, I felt the same way. I just disagreed with how it was managed.”
While The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019, the franchise has lived on with prequel Young Sheldon and its spinoff Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, as well as an upcoming companion show Stuart Fails to Save the Universe with BBT cast members Kevin Sussman, Lauren Lapkus and Brian Posehn returning.
Ted Lasso
It was reported in 2021 that Sudeikis negotiated a major pay increase, to $1 million per episode, for the third season of Apple TV+’s sports comedy Ted Lasso.
Ted Lasso season 3 was originally supposed to be the end for the Emmy-winning comedy, but Sudeikis confirmed on the “New Heights” podcast in March 2025 that the show would return.
“We’re writing season 4 now. That’s the word,” he revealed to host Travis Kelce.
Sudeikis then teased, “Ted’s coaching a women’s team. So there, that’s [happening].”
Matt Chernis, Apple TV+’s head of programming, subsequently announced, “Ted Lasso has been nothing short of a juggernaut, inspiring a passionate fanbase all over the world, and delivering endless joy and laughter, all while spreading kindness, compassion and unwavering belief. Everyone at Apple is thrilled to be continuing our collaboration with Jason and the brilliant creative minds behind this show.”
Read the full article here
