Charlie Sheen ‘Highest Paid Actor on TV’
By ANIThursday, August 12, 2010
NEW YORK - Charlie Sheen has topped a new list of ‘Highest Paid TV Stars’, raking in 1.25 million dollars for every episode of ‘Two and a Half Men’.
Sheen’s salary, however, pales in comparison to the perennial queen of daytime media, Oprah Winfrey, reports The New York Daily News.
The talk host, who will launch her own network next fall, earns a cool 315 million dollars a year, according to TV Guide.
David Letterman’s steady performance at ‘The Late Show’ earns 28 million dollars, while the recently re-established ‘Tonight Show’ host, Jay Leno, earns 25 million dollars.
‘American Idol’ host Ryan Seacrest takes home the biggest paycheck in the reality sector, with 15 million dollars a year.
‘The Soup’s’ Joel McHale trails him with 2 million dollars, but that number doesn’t take into account McHale’s earnings for his NBC comedy, ‘Community.’
Snooki, the pint-sized star of MTV’s ‘Jersey Shore,’ earns 30,000 dollars per episode - same as Ashley Tisdale’s take-home for her new CW series, ‘Hellcats.’
‘Blue Bloods’ star Tom Selleck will earn 125,000 dollars an episode - which puts him in the middle of the pack of top TV drama earners, just below ‘Parenthood’s’ Lauren Graham, who makes 150,000 dollars, and above ‘White Collar’s’ Matt Bomer, who makes 100,000 dollars.
Hugh Laurie, star of Fox’s House,’ is the highest-paid drama actor, earning 400,000 dollars an episode.
Among news anchors, NBC’s Matt Lauer leads with more than 16 million dollar per year. Katie Couric gets 15 million dollars for her CBS gig. And former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whose new CNN series will debut in September, will bank 500,000 dollars a year. (ANI)