The One Where We Compare Sitcom Salaries

Have you been missing Friends since they “took a break” from Netflix? Or did you shout “Bazinga!” when you heard The Big Bang Theory was coming to HBO Max?

There’s no denying that we all love the characters of Friends and The Big Bang Theory because they’re funny, lighthearted, full of life, and, most importantly, relatable.

The casts of both of these sitcoms were memorable, but so were their salaries.

Each main actor of both of these sitcoms was paid about one million dollars per episode, making them the highest-paid TV actors in history.

It may not be a shock when you realize Friends fans are still binge-watching this 236-episode TV show 16 years after the finale aired on live television.

And The Big Bang Theory’s final 12 episodes saw record viewership numbers (even bigger than The Game of Thrones, if you can believe it!).

So if one of these shows is your sitcom lobster, your prayers have been answered: both will be exclusively on HBO Max when it launches on May 27.

Until you get your subscription, enjoy these incredible salary stats on your favorite Friends and The Big Bang Theory cast members. We promise it’s less than 18 pages long.

Total earnings by season

The one where we talk more crazy sitcom stats

If we combine all of the salaries of The Big Bang Theory cast, they could pay for HBO Max for all of New York City until the end of 2020 and still have $7.4 million leftover.

HBO’s new streaming app will be $15 per month for a subscription, but can you really put a price on watching endless hours or Friends and The Big Bang Theory?

WarnerMedia’s HBO Max earned the streaming rights to Friends and The Big Bang Theory. How, you might ask?

They paid a whopping $425 million for the streaming rights to Friends and $600 million for The Big Bang Theory.

That’s 80% of the total compensation the main cast of Friends received for filming the entire sitcom and 68% of the total compensation of the main cast of The Big Bang Theory.

Let’s put these cast salaries into perspective, shall we?

Jim Parsons, the brilliant Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, earned $1,246,000 per episode in season ten. That’s nearly 20x the median annual American income!

And to break it down, that’s about $56,636 per minute. Sheesh, Jim could buy himself a new car with just one minute’s worth of work. Or Sheldon could buy himself a near mint copy of The Avengers #1.

But check out the most money each actor has received for these excellent TV shows we all love so much.

You could say from these earnings alone that the Friends cast is set for life. Matt LeBlanc made more per episode than Dr. Drake Ramoray, the neurosurgeon Joey played on Days of Our Lives, would make in a year (according to Salary.com) . . . if, you know, he were a real doctor . . . and hadn’t fallen down that elevator shaft.

But wait, let’s keep going. Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!

Friends remains a highly lucrative sitcom for Warner Bros., raking in $1 billion annually. As part of their contracts, the cast receives 2% of the syndication income, totaling $20 million per cast member each year!

So over the past five years, each of them made $100 million. As Janice would say, “Oh. My. God.”

Other Stats

• If a member of the Friends cast devoted their earnings from one episode ($1 million) toward an HBO Max subscription, they could stream for 5,556 years.
• By the end of the series, The Big Bang Theory cast had earned 40% more than the cast of Friends.
  • If you discount seasons 11 and 12 of The Big Bang Theory, the cast still made 9% more than Friends.
• The lowest earners on our list, Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch, earned $19K per minute (runtime), or 22% more than the annual salary of a minimum-wage worker.

The one where we come to a conclusion

There’s really no question why these two all-time favorite sitcoms have the highest-paid TV actors in history.

Friends and The Big Bang Theory have brought happiness to your life from day one of their show, influencing you to get the Rachel haircut or to watch more scientific documentaries.

Each cast member of these shows made $1 million per episode the last few seasons of their production, and they’re still making $20 million to this day.

You’ll understand why when you watch these hilarious sitcoms.

So catch these much-loved shows on HBO Max when it launches May 27 to enjoy the simpler time with Friends and the nerd culture with The Big Bang Theory.

Methodology

The team at Reviews.org researched various reports and press releases to determine the compensation amounts per episode for each cast member of the TV sitcoms Friends and The Big Bang Theory. Our team determined each cast member’s earnings throughout the show based on cast member appearances and compensation per season.

In addition, Reviews.org compared these compensation amounts to the subscription cost of the new streaming service, HBO Max.

Sources

1. New York Times, “Friends’ Cast Bands Together To Demand a Salary Increase”
2. Business Insider, “How the salaries of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ actors compare with TV’s highest-paid stars”
3. Forbes, “’Big Bang’ Bucks: Inside The Mega-Money Of CBS’ Hit Show”
4. The Verge, “The Big Bang Theory lands exclusively on HBO Max in deal reportedly worth more than $1 billion”
5. United States Census Bureau, U.S. Median Household Income
6. University of California, Davis, “What are the annual earnings for a full-time minimum wage worker?”