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The salaries of the highest paid TV stars of 2017, if we combined them, could probably wipe out our national debt or feed every person in America for the rest of our lives. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen. Not when most of them prefer to spend their money like this.
That’s okay though. These TV stars have earned their tremendously over-inflated salaries, right? I mean, if we didn’t watch their shows, they wouldn’t have advertisers or subscribers and they wouldn’t get paid so much. It’s really our fault that we make so little compared to what they make. And what they make is a bundle.
By the way, on Wednesday we shared the latest highest paid movie actors and actresses in movies list and they’re not hurting for cash either.
A new report by Variety breaks down the salaries of the biggest TV stars into three categories. Here are the top salaries in each one…
DRAMA (Per-Episode Estimate)
$775,000 Robert De Niro, Untitled David O. Russell project/Amazon
$525,000 Mark Harmon, NCIS/CBS
$500,000 Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones/HBO
$500,000 Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones/HBO
$500,000 Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones/HBO
$500,000 Kit Harington, Game of Thrones/HBO
$500,000 Lena Headey, Game of Thrones/HBO
$500,000 Kevin Costner, Yellowstone/Paramount
$500,000 Kevin Spacey, House of Cards/Netflix
$450,000 Claire Danes, Homeland/Showtime
$450,000 Ellen Pompeo, Grey’s Anatomy/ABC
$350,000 William H. Macy, Shameless/Showtime
$350,000 Emmy Rossum, Shameless/Showtime
$350,000 Billy Bob Thornton, Goliath/Amazon
COMEDY (Per-Episode Estimate)
$900,000 Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory/CBS
$900,000 Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory/CBS
$900,000 Simon Helberg, The Big Bang Theory/CBS
$900,000 Kunal Nayyar, The Big Bang Theory/CBS
$900,000 Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory/CBS
$650,000 Dwayne Johnson, Ballers/HBO
$500,000 Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory/CBS
$500,000 Julie Bowen, Modern Family/ABC
$500,000 Ty Burrell, Modern Family/ABC
$500,000 Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family/ABC
$500,000 Ed O’Neill, Modern Family/ABC
$500,000 Melissa Rauch, The Big Bang Theory/CBS
$500,000 Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family/ABC
$500,000 Sofia Vergara, Modern Family/ABC
REALITY/NEWS/HOST (ANNUAL SALARY ESTIMATE)
$50 million Ellen DeGeneres, The Ellen DeGeneres Show /Syndicated
$47 million Judith Sheindlin, Judge Judy/Syndicated
$25 million Matt Lauer, Today/NBC
$25 million Katy Perry, American Idol/ABC
$22 million Kelly Ripa, Live With Kelly & Ryan/Syndicated
$18 million Megyn Kelly, NBC News
$18 million Robin Roberts, Good Morning America/ABC
$16 million Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show/NBC
$15 million Stephen Colbert, The Late Show/CBS
$15 million Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Kimmel Live/ABC
$15 million Pat Sajak, Wheel of Fortune/Syndicated
$15 million Ryan Seacrest, Live With Kelly & Ryan/Syndicated
$15 million George Stephanopoulos, ABC News
Check out all of the complete lists and the full report over at Variety.
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