Highest paid TV performers

Danny Tse

According to this Yahoo article--

Drama (per episode)

Hugh Laurie (House) $400,000+
Christopher Meloni & Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU) $395,000 (each)
David Caruso (CSI: Miami) $375,000
Marg Helgenberger (CSI) $375,000
Mark Harmon (NCIS) $375,000
Laurence Fishburne (CSI) $350,000
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) $350,000
Denis Leary (Rescue Me) $350,000
Gary Sinise (CSI: NY ) $275,000
Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy) $250,000
David Boreanaz (Bones) $200,000
Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) $200,000
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife ) $175,000
Dana Delany (Body of Proof ) $150,000
Lauren Graham (Parenthood) $150,000
Jada Pinkett Smith (HawthoRNe) $150,000
Jimmy Smits (Outlaw) $150,000
LL Cool J (NCIS: Los Angeles) $125,000
Chris O'Donnell (NCIS: Los Angeles) $125,000
Mark Feuerstein (Royal Pains) $125,000
Jason Lee (Memphis Beat) $125,000
Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds) $125,000
Tom Selleck (Blue Bloods) $125,000
Michael Weatherly (NCIS) $125,000
Matt Bomer (White Collar) $100,000
Nathan Fillion (Castle) $100,000
Thomas Gibson (Criminal Minds) $100,000
Jon Hamm (Mad Men) $100,000
Cole Hauser (Chase) $100,000
Alex O'Loughlin (Hawaii Five-0) $100,000
Timothy Olyphant (Justified ) $100,000
Scott Caan (Hawaii Five-0) $80,000
Angie Harmon (Rizzoli & Isles) $75,000
Anna Paquin (True Blood) $75,000
Blair Underwood (The Event) $75,000
Zachary Levi (Chuck) $60,000
Ian Somerhalder (The Vampire Diaries) $40,000
Shailene Woodley (The Secret Life of the American Teenager) $40,000
Ashley Tisdale (Hellcats) $30,000

Late Night/Talk Syndication (per year)

Oprah Winfrey $315 million
Judge Judy Sheindlin $45 million
David Letterman (The Late Show) $28 million
Jay Leno (The Tonight Show) $25 million
Conan O'Brien (The Conan O'Brien Show) $10 million
Ellen DeGeneres (The Ellen DeGeneres Show) $8 million
Jimmy Kimmel (Jimmy Kimmel Live) $6 million
Chelsea Handler (Chelsea Lately) $3.5 million
George Lopez (Lopez Tonight) $3.5 million

Reality (per year)

Ryan Seacrest (American Idol) $15 million
Joel McHale (The Soup) $2 million
Piers Morgan (America's Got Talent) $2 million
Kate Gosselin (Kate Plus 8) $250,000 per episode
Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi (Jersey Shore) $30,000 per episode

Comedy (per episode)

Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men) $1.25 million
Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) $550,000
Marcia Cross (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Eva Longoria Parker (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons) $400,000
Julie Kavner (The Simpsons) $400,000
Tina Fey (30 Rock) $350,000
Jeremy Piven (Entourage) $350,000
Steve Carell (The Office) $297,000
Angus T. Jones (Two and a Half Men) $250,000
David Duchovny (Californication) $200,000
Kevin Dillon (Entourage) $200,000
Adrian Grenier (Entourage) $200,000
Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly) $180,000
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie) $175,000
William Shatner ($#*! My Dad Says) $150,000
David Spade (Rules of Engagement) $150,000
Ed O'Neill (Modern Family) $100,000
Patrick Warburton (Rules of Engagement) $85,000
Betty White (Hot in Cleveland) $75,000
Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) $60,000
Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) $60,000
Ty Burrell (Modern Family) $50,000
Jane Lynch (Glee) $50,000
Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) $40,000
Matthew Morrison (Glee) $30,000
Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place) $30,000
Dylan and Cole Sprouse (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody) $20,000 (each)
Rico Rodriguez (Modern Family) $15,000

News (per year)

Matt Lauer (Today) $16 million +
Katie Couric (CBS) $15 million
Brian Williams (NBC) $12.5 million
Diane Sawyer (ABC) $12 million
Meredith Vieira (Today) $11 million
Bill O'Reilly (Fox News) $10 million
George Stephanopoulos (ABC) $8 million
Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) $7 million
Shepard Smith (Fox News) $7 million
Wolf Blitzer (CNN) $3 million
Christiane Amanpour (ABC) $2 million
Lawrence O'Donnell (MSNBC) $2 million
Eliot Spitzer (CNN) $500,000

tonyb

.....and the point is?? We should all go into show buisness ??

Fongolio

Charlie Sheen get 1.25 MILLION an episode!!! Something is seriously wrong with our sociiety when we pay that kind of money for entertainers while people are going hungry and losing their homes. INSANE!!!!!!!!

dee1949

...and WHO pays their salaries??? we do with high prices for products whose sponsors are willing to pay for ad time on popular tv shows. Visions circle that the common man always loses.

C. Sheen makes more in one episode than the President, Vice President and a few senators thrown in....and he is an a..hole to boot.

mole'

waiting for highest paid Athletes

Slinger182

Is Oprah still single??? :eek:

obieone

I can't believe David Caruso isn't making minimum wage. That guy straight up SUX!

AsSiMiLaTeD

The amounts don't really surprise me all that much, but the ordering of some of those guys does.

Norm Apter

Danny Tse wrote: »

Reality (per year)

Ryan Seacrest (American Idol) $15 million

I guess this is the only one that I find truly surprising. I understand that the show is massively popular (though I don't believe I've seen an episode for about 5 years...just not my cup of tea) but does Seacrest really have that much star appeal? Does he bring so much to the table with his talents? I've just never thought of him as particularly charismatic or even interesting? And how demanding is hosting a reality show?

Sherardp

Oprah is killing it out there. Wish I was Stedman, living in the pool house.

Danny Tse

Fongolio wrote: »

Charlie Sheen get 1.25 MILLION an episode!!! Something is seriously wrong with our sociiety when we pay that kind of money for entertainers while people are going hungry and losing their homes. INSANE!!!!!!!!

That's better than having a feature film career. At $1.25 million/episode, that's over $20 million per season....which will still leave time for him to do a feature.

bobman1235

Norm Apter wrote: »

I guess this is the only one that I find truly surprising. I understand that the show is massively popular (though I don't believe I've seen an episode for about 5 years...just not my cup of tea) but does Seacrest really have that much star appeal? Does he bring so much to the table with his talents? I've just never thought of him as particularly charismatic or even interesting? And how demanding is hosting a reality show?

I'm not a huge Seacrest fan or anything, but that show does air live, and it takes a certain amount of skill to roll with all the things that can go wrong with a live performance, adn to keep everything moving.

Is that skill worth 15 million dollars? Maybe not to you or me but if someone's willing to pay it... there it is.

leadfoot1

Wow the guys from The Big Bang Theory or seriously underpaid compared to the other guys. That show is funny! Rules of Engagement is a good one as well. I thought they would have been making more money than that. Patrick Warburton has been around awhile and only pulling in $85k?

gimpod

I'm sorry but this is just SICK:mad:, Nobody's worth that kind of money especially when there are so many family's out there working 2 jobs or more just to make ends meet and sometimes they don't make it.

Just my $0.02 worth.

snow

Wow 315 mill for Oprah thats about 4 times as much as all the others in her category listed combined


REGARDS SNOW

squeeb

I am not a big "tax the rich" kind of person. But I do think it is time to start taxing the REALLY rich. Back in the day, I think it was Frank Sinatra who said he knew he was doing better than most Americans when he was taxed at a 91% clip. Today the max is 35% for over $373,650. There is quite a difference between someone making $500,000 per year and someone making $20 million per year.

I am not saying we need to get to the post war levels of the past but I do think these highly paid actors, athletes, CEOs (especially those who get huge severance packages) should pay a much higher percent of their salary. More money for the people who deserve it - teachers, police officers, military personnel, etc. And start paying down the debt!

snow

squeeb wrote: »

I am not a big "tax the rich" kind of person. But I do think it is time to start taxing the REALLY rich. Back in the day, I think it was Frank Sinatra who said he knew he was doing better than most Americans when he was taxed at a 91% clip. Today the max is 35% for over $373,650. There is quite a difference between someone making $500,000 per year and someone making $20 million per year.

I am not saying we need to get to the post war levels of the past but I do think these highly paid actors, athletes, CEOs (especially those who get huge severance packages) should pay a much higher percent of their salary. More money for the people who deserve it - teachers, police officers, military personnel, etc. And start paying down the debt!

The way the system is set up is designed so the truly rich dont pay much in taxes anyhow if you continue to have tax write offs and business expenses designed to deduct a huge portion of your income then all they do is get richer.

Irregardless some of these salaries are obscene Oprah is making over a mill a day if you figure she worked 6 days a week at 315 mill a year thats stupid money period. When you consider that if you worked 40 years at 50k a year she would make as much as you in two days, something is wrong with that. Bruno Mars and Travie McCoy had it right when they sang I wanaa be a Billionaire and mentioned Oprah and the Queen



REGARDS SNOW

bobman1235

snow wrote: »

The way the system is set up is designed so the truly rich dont pay much in taxes anyhow if you continue to have tax write offs and business expenses designed to deduct a huge portion of your income then all they do is get richer.

Except that's so completely not true and just something non-rich people say.

There's all those statistics about how 3% of the population pay 50% of the taxes, etc etc. That doesn't happen with all the magic write-offs.

Everyone pays a percentage. That's fair. That's the way it works. It's the incentive to make money. We rant and rave about these actors who are making millions, but they're also PAYING millions in taxes and its' all trickling down to us, so....

xj4094dg

bobman1235 wrote: »

Except that's so completely not true and just something non-rich people say.

THIS is what non-rich conservatives say in the hopes of some day being rich.

bobman1235

Blah blah blah. I am not rich and barring a miracle I never will be. I'm also not conservative, I'm just realistic. I understand what "percentage" means, and I think it's fair. I understand how capitalism works, and for whatever faults our society has we've only achieved so much because the people who accomplish great things get paid for doing so.

I also have yet to see the gubmint prove that they can handle the VAST amounts of money we already give to them effectively, so thinking MORE taxes is an answer.... just doesn't compute for me.

nooshinjohn

Every one of them is overpaid, overhyped and not worth it IMHO, but if they are able to grab that kind of cash for what they do, that's capitalism and I applaud them for it. Now if they would just help me pay the mortgage....

Danny Tse wrote: »

News (per year)

Matt Lauer (Today) $16 million +
Katie Couric (CBS) $15 million
Brian Williams (NBC) $12.5 million
Diane Sawyer (ABC) $12 million
Meredith Vieira (Today) $11 million
Bill O'Reilly (Fox News) $10 million
George Stephanopoulos (ABC) $8 million
Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) $7 million
Shepard Smith (Fox News) $7 million
Wolf Blitzer (CNN) $3 million
Christiane Amanpour (ABC) $2 million
Lawrence O'Donnell (MSNBC) $2 million
Eliot Spitzer (CNN) $500,000

You forgot to add Glenn Beck at 32 million per year... now HE's worth it.;):p

snow

bobman1235 wrote: »

Except that's so completely not true and just something non-rich people say.

There's all those statistics about how 3% of the population pay 50% of the taxes, etc etc. That doesn't happen with all the magic write-offs.

Everyone pays a percentage. That's fair. That's the way it works. It's the incentive to make money. We rant and rave about these actors who are making millions, but they're also PAYING millions in taxes and its' all trickling down to us, so....

Hmmm..... Wrong

It is true that everyone pays a percentage yes but when you consider percentage of tax versus percentage of income the rich pay less than the middle class do.

What would truly be fair IMHO is everyone pay the same percentage no deductions no BS no write offs of any kind. Or even better yet a spender tax if you purchase something you pay a tax whatever good services you use you pay a tax on individuals companys everyone from the babysitter to the drug dealer organized crime etc pays this way.

I think a lot of money overseas hidden away would find its way back to the USA if people were not worried about spending their money here and getting caught because they cant show where it came from without being arrested.

The fact is the the criminals are going to continue in their criminal ways whether they spend their money here or elsewhere just as well get a piece of that pie



REGARDS SNOW

Norm Apter

snow wrote: »

Hmmm..... Wrong

It is true that everyone pays a percentage yes but when you consider percentage of tax versus percentage of income the rich pay less than the middle class do.

What would truly be fair IMHO is everyone pay the same percentage no deductions no BS no write offs of any kind. Or even better yet a spender tax if you purchase something you pay a tax whatever good services you use you pay a tax on individuals companys everyone from the babysitter to the drug dealer organized crime etc pays this way.

I think a lot of money overseas hidden away would find its way back to the USA if people were not worried about spending their money here and getting caught because they cant show where it came from without being arrested.

The fact is the the criminals are going to continue in their criminal ways whether they spend their money here or elsewhere just as well get a piece of that pie

REGARDS SNOW

I don't have particularly strong views on the matter, but I do tend to agree with your description, Snow. My wife is a secretary for an independent tax attorney -- he's in his late 60s and has portfolio of very wealthy clients on the whole (we're talking L.A. here of course). I get weekly if not daily stories about how so and so is being charged with this or that by the IRS, is on the run, doing time...and these are just the guys getting caught (my guess is that a lot more get away with a lot in the gray areas). Just anecdotal stuff but there does seem to be a tremendous amount of leakage for those who can afford it (i.e. the wealthiest)

I'd be interested to know if Bobman's statistic is the percentage of how much the wealthiest actually contribute or how much they are responsible for (on paper), which could be two very different things.

bobman1235

Norm Apter wrote: »

I'd be interested to know if Bobman's statistic is the percentage of how much the wealthiest actually contribute or how much they are responsible for (on paper), which could be two very different things.

I'm almost positive it's what they actually pay. Imagine if they DIDN'T cheat / deduct / whatever.

Look I'm not a financial expert, nor am I trying to defend the rich, I just don't like when people see outrageous salaries and just immediately see dollar signs for themselves and want to tax the crap out of those people. Yes, they should pay a fair amount, which to me is a reasonable percentage, and if it's true that they're getting OUT of that via loopholes and whatnot, then maybe that's NOT fair, but saying that they should pay a much HIGHER percentage because of their wealth seems to go against what our system was founded on.

tonyb

Thats the new mentality...Punish achievment,reward mediocracy. Personally,I've never been given a job from a poor person. Isn't what you do with your money,your buisness,your right,your freedom to spend as you wish? Spin it any way you want,but the rich didn't get rich from sitting infront of the TV playing games all day waiting on a welfare check to hit the mailbox. They worked for it,achieved....sure you can argue some were given their wealth, by birth,inheritence, but someone before them worked for it. Just as you may work your whole life,maybe all you have at the end is a middle class house thats paid for. Would you not like to leave that to your kids,without uncle same taking half of it ? The rich are no different, hold on to what you worked your whole life for. Taxing them more will only hurt,not help our economy.

concealer404

Comrade, these people should not be making any more money than you.

cstmar01

well this just reminds me now of my tax classes in college....

there is always the problem of how much should someone be taxed vs their income. Flat tax at 35% on everyone is going to really be hard on someone making 20K a year compared to someone making 500K a year. The whole problem is finding a % that can work on both levels. In theory if you would then tax a low % say 10 on the 20K a year it would help them because they would then have more of a net income to spend. However then on the 500K person they will have more money and just keep getting richer but potentially not put the money back into the system (trickle down eco is not always true sorry). Yes their spending money would increase, but then there is no way to make sure that money will be reinvested back into anything besides possibly their Money market which you wouldn't see a dime of in a "trickle down" theory because its just sitting there collecting interest and no spending is taking place.

Then you have the problem if you do a step progression of taxes the rich say "well I'm making 500K and pay 35% while the poor only are taxed 10% it should all be fair across the board!" regardless of what/how you look at it will always be considered unfair to one person or the other. The goal is to find a way that both people can live happy and still maintain a life style and afford the things they need.

But super rich, umm your never going to spend all that freakin' money anyways, sorry, so if you get taxed 40% rather than 35% I really don't feel bad for you. You have more money to spend in a month than what most people can make in a life time so is it really hurting anyone? really? no.

I am one that likes my money but at a certain point when you have 15 houses, are worth a few billion and have every luxury you could want it gets a little old...