Despite TV being less of a big deal than movies, the television industry is booming. Thanks to the world of streaming, we have access to more and more shows being made that are of extremely high quality. Netflix is producing some incredible and highly noteworthy original shows that have us gripped in from the very first episode.
TV shows haven’t always had huge budgets, but even when the budget was small, a large portion of that money would go into the pockets of the stars of the show. Our list is not in order, as we have had to factor in for inflation and when the show was released. So, without further ado, here is a list of 4 of the highest paid sitcom TV stars of all time:
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Kelsey Grammer (Frasier; $1.6 million per episode)
Frasier is a spin-off of Kelsey Grammer’s character in Cheers. Most spin offs have been doomed to fail in Hollywood, but Frasier was the one exception to this rule. In fact, there are some that would regard Frasier as being wildly more popular and well received by the public than Cheers ever was. Frasier brought in such high amounts of income that the network was able to offer the main character, played by Kelsey Grammer, $1.6 million per episode. In the mid 90’s, this was a whopping salary and was without a doubt well deserved.
- Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond; $1.725 million per episode)
Ray Romano is an American institution. He is an actor and comedian, and now also creating success in dramatic roles in the movie industry too. He started his career as a stand-up comic, desperate to make it to the big time. He wrote and performed in his hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and it quickly became one of the highest-earning television stars of all time. Ray earned $1.725 million per episode by the final seasons of the show, rendering him the second highest-paid sitcom star in television history.
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Charlie Sheen (Two And A Half Men; $1.8 million per episode)
Charlie Sheen’s time on the extremely popular Two and a Half Men, ended in disaster as his behavior caused him to be very publicly fired from the show. Before the abrupt and forceful ending to his contract came about, Sheen was clearing a whopping $1.8 million per episode. That’s as much as some of the jackpots you can win when playing games using a lucky creek casino.
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Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld; $1 million per episode)
Seinfeldis still to this day regarded as one of the most innovative and brilliant comedy sitcoms ever made. Jerry Seinfeld received $1 million per episode by the end of the show’s nine season run – a greater sum than that received by any of his main three costars.
The brilliant stars of our most beloved TV sitcoms are some of the highest paid people in the world. Who knows where TV sitcoms are going next, but we can’t wait to find out.
