It’s been 21 years since the popular CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, starring Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton, stopped making new shows. Since that time, the show has been airing reruns in syndication and making Romano a whole lot of money.
There is a good reason for that, of course. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences nominated Everybody Loves Raymond for 69 Emmys, and it won 15, so critics obviously loved it. Ray Romano won one time, Patricia Heaton won twice, Brad Garrett won three times, and Doris Roberts won four awards. The show also earned the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy in 2003 and 2005.
During the show’s final season, Ray Romano was the highest-paid TV actor per episode, making almost $2 million per show. In fact, after the rest of the cast learned that Romano was earning significantly more than they were, Brad Garrett led the rest of them in negotiating raises.
However, it was after the show ceased production that he really cashed in. Seven years after the sitcom ended, Vanity Fair and Forbes each reported that Ray Romano was still earning $18 million a year in syndication residuals.
Not every popular sitcom still pays its main cast
While Ray Romano and other stars like Lisa Kudrow of Friends fame are still raking in big money decades after their shows came to an end, not every star of a hit sitcom can live the high life on just their residuals.
Jodie Sweetin, who played Stephanie Tanner for eight years on the popular sitcom Full House, recently revealed just how little money she now receives from the show. Despite appearing on the show from 1987 to 1995 and in all 193 episodes, Jodie Sweetin revealed that she recently received a residual check for a penny.
Also, despite airing for only five seasons, from 1969 to 1974, The Brady Bunch has remained on the air in reruns for over 50 years. One report claimed that since it first went into syndication in September 1975, an episode of The Brady Bunch has been broadcast somewhere in the world every day since.
Despite all of those repeat airings, Eve Plumb, who played middle daughter Jan Brady, said recently during an interview that she doesn’t make anything from them.
“We don’t make residuals,” Plumb said, adding in her memoir, “If I had a dime for every rerun episode, I’d pay off the national deficit. I don’t.”