Who was the highest paid star in TV history, making $100,000 per episode while his show was on the air?

mingogal

Jerry Seinfeld No link I just happen to remember reading it in "parade" (sunday suppliment) several years ago Nov 18 07, 12:22 PM

MonkeyOnALeash

Bill Cosby once had the record at $40,000 per episode while on The Cosby Show. But that changed. Friends characters made $1,000,000 per episode for a while. But that changed as well. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0005/04/st.00.html " Some reports have set Mr. Seinfeld's salary at $1 million an episode, but the executive said Mr. Seinfeld was at that figure three years ago. Mr. Seinfeld also profits from the syndication of his series. Forbes magazine put his income for last year at $94 million. " http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07EED81E3EF935A15751C1A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Nov 18 07, 12:55 PM

Baloo55th

Are they worth it? I doubt it. Nov 18 07, 12:58 PM

zbeckabee

As of December, 2006 -- Simon Cowell. His latest deal to judge American Idol in the States - the spin-off of our own Pop Idol - is worth £60million over the next four years - the biggest deal in American TV history. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=424518&in_page_id=1773 Nov 18 07, 2:01 PM

queproblema

Look at +1996, +2002, +2003, and +2004 on this page. It names the stars of Friends, Jane Kaczmarek, James Gandolfini, Brad Garrett, Ray Romano, George Eads, and Jorga Fox as all making that much or much more. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20014478,00.html Adjusted for inflation, what do you think Lawrence Welk and Ed Sullivan made? (This is a rhetorical question, McGruff, not a new one.) Nov 18 07, 6:14 PM

queproblema

"Roseanne and Seinfeld each received an estimated $1 million per episode for their hit series." http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=203824 Don't forget Jackie Gleason, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, and many more. Bottomline: why don't we leave off the "making $100,000 per episode while his show was on the air?" part and just go with "Who was the highest paid star in TV history?" Zbeckabee might have that figure, though I haven't done the math to break down 60,000,000 lbs. over 4 years. Nov 18 07, 6:25 PM

MonkeyOnALeash

The World may never know. Nov 18 07, 6:28 PM

star_gazer

Bob Denever who played Gilligan on the smash TV hit "Gilligan's Island". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilligan_(fictional_character) Nov 18 07, 8:05 PM

MonkeyOnALeash

I remember from my Childhood and my one time photographic recall of the stats contained within The Guinness Book of World records, that Perry Como once held this distinction. " Como became the highest-paid performer in the history of television to that date, earning mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Como#Television Nov 18 07, 9:02 PM