Zendaya, Cage, Gomez: TV's Million-Dollar Episode Paychecks Endure

Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon still earn around $2 million an episode for Apple TV+'s "The Morning Show," and they are no longer alone at that level. Sylvester Stallone is believed to be clearing about $2 million an episode for Paramount+'s Taylor Sheridan-produced drama "Tulsa King," while "Only Murders in the Building" stars Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short are easily earning more than $1 million an episode as the series enters Season 6.

Peak TV is over. Peak TV salaries are not.

The downturn in original series production has tightened the marketplace overall, and the film business has sat in limbo for much of this year as the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger has unfolded. Netflix's content-leadership shake-up has also slowed dealmaking, at least temporarily. Yet with the right project at the right moment, marquee names keep making bank on the small screen.

"The need for stars that can anchor these television shows is bigger than it's ever been," one talent agent says. "It used to be unheard of that someone would get $2 million an episode."

Who benefits most?

Stars who may have aged out of marquee film roles have profited most from the new marketplace. Streaming offers them lucrative work without the 22-episode grind of the broadcast era; a 6-, 8- or 10-episode order is a lighter commitment.

"Every star now is looking at how to anchor a series," an insider says. "If you're No. 1 or No. 2 on the call sheet, it's really never been better financially."

Jennifer Garner crossed the $1 million threshold for Peacock's "The Five-Star Weekend." Apple is seen as the most competitive outlet on salaries, with HBO and Amazon in the mix. Paramount+ pays $1 million-plus an episode to some leads, particularly on Sheridan and 101 Studios shows. Disney is viewed as more spendthrift; FX chases fewer high-salary stars, betting on the power of material with series like "Shōgun."

"The TV actor salary game is still a really good business," one agent says. "There's still a lot of money to be made as an actor on television. Certainly for the starriest names, those people are still getting toward the upper limit of anything that anyone's ever made on television."

That optimism comes with a caveat. "It's not 2016 to 2019, when everyone was just blasting a fire hose of cash into the community, which was totally unsustainable," another rep says. "Comparing anything to that time, when the streamers were out there spending like drunken sailors, is not a fair comp."

What does this change for everyone else?

Not much. The boom times are not for everyone. The middle class of actors — those who once made a nice living bouncing from pilot to pilot — face a tougher market than before. But rigid exclusivity clauses are gone too, and shorter episodic orders mean networks and studios now let stars moonlight across series (ask the ubiquitous Nicole Kidman).

One structural shift has helped parity. Eight years ago California banned the "actor's quote" — the prior-role rate used as a salary baseline in negotiations. "It's leveled the playing field quite a bit," an agent says. "Now the pay depends on the role." Women and minorities, traditionally paid less, can demand more.

There is one late surprise: broadcast networks are performing well with original scripted fare, drawing back stars including Blair Underwood, Felicity Huffman, Peter Krause and Hope Davis at $250,000 to $350,000 an episode to start, and more in success. "It's completely competitive with the top end of a hit show," one agent says — minus the syndication windfalls backend points once delivered.