As Ratings Soar, ‘This Is Us’ Cast Demand Pay Raises, See Their Current, Measly Salaries Here
As NBC’s hit show, This Is Us, continues to score big in the ratings department, the cast is looking to cash in by demanding pay raises from their small starting salaries.
According to Radar Online, the cast of This Is Us is highly underpaid. While stars Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia make around $80,000 an episode, their TV children are making way less. The publication reports that 41-year-old Sterling K. Brown is the highest paid TV sibling, making $75,000 per episode while Justin Hartley and Chrissy Metz take home only $40,000 an episode. That means, they’re making just half of what Moore, Brown, and Ventimiglia make.
Season 1 of This Is Us had 18 episodes, which means that Mandy and Milo made $1,440,000 for the year. At just $5,000 less an episode, Sterling’s take-home was just a hair under his co-stars. But this means that Metz and Hartley only took home $720,000 for the season, which is before taxes.
Most people will think that over a million a year and just shy of a million a year is an outstanding salary. But those people must remember that TV star salaries are far different from typical salaries. For example, some of the cast of ABC’s hit show, Modern Family, are reportedly $1 million an episode. As another example, Business Insider reports that the cast of Friends was paid $1 million an episode in the later seasons.
If you need us, we’ll just be here staring at this photo. #ThisIsUs
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Business Insider also reports that Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry, and Courtney Cox all came together to negotiate their lucrative salaries. They all demanded to be paid the same amount per episode or else they threatened to walk away from the hit show. Obviously, this was a risk that NBC couldn’t take, and they gave the cast exactly what they wanted. Similarly, Radar Online reports that the cast of This Is Us is taking a page from the Friends’ book and negotiating together.
*wipes tears from face* #ThisIsUs
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After the season premiere of the show brought in over 12 million viewers, the cast reportedly banded together and “demanded a huge pay increase” to network execs. They feel that since their show is one of the highest-rated on television, they should be paid accordingly.
Do you think the cast of This Is Us should be paid more?
[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Shutterstock]
