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For most TV stars, portraying main characters on a hit show mean hefty paychecks, however the payouts does not stop there. When a hit show are redistributed, syndicated, released on a DVD and even purchased for a streaming site, the casts of the of said hit show will get their residual paychecks called royalties.

Do all actors get paid for the reruns of their own show? As reported by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, while most actors do get paid for their shows, some do not receive a dime for the reruns. For a lot of main characters on a show, the royalties can even lead to higher and long-term payouts that can eventually trump the original per episode salary of the actor. The supporting casts on the other hand do not get the royalty payouts. Listed below are the highest paid reruns on TV in 2021.

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Friends

The hit show Friends lasted for 10 seasons between the year 1994 and 2004. The hit show has made stars such as Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc,David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow most especially, Jennifer Aniston. Because of the show’s unending success, still earning the producers money even the show has ended for decades now, the main casts still earn royalties from the show. It was reported that the five main casts of Friends earns $20 million each for royalties, which was 2% of the reported annual $1 billion earnings of Warner Bros.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is considered to be one of the most beloved and successful sitcoms to this day. The show that is basically about nothing ran almost a decade and has ended in 1998. The payouts for the casts are actually for the creators of the sitcom, Jerry Seinfeld and his co-creator Larry David. Unfortunately for other casts like Michael Richards, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander, they do not earn anything from the royalties because they did not have a stake in the show. The two creators each make about $400 million per rerun according to the New York magazine.

Gilligan’s Island

For the record, Gilligan’s Island can be considered one of the most familiar sitcom in history. Although the show only ran for three seasons, and was even filmed in black and white for the first season, it still marked in the minds of the audience. Damn Wells who has played the iconic character Mary Ann has once told Forbes that people might think that they are swimming in money for the reruns of their show but they unfortunately do not receive a penny from it. Only the producer, Sherwood Schwartz, is making money from the reruns and it was reported that he gets about $90 million from each rerun cycle.

Everybody Loves Raymond

One of the richest Emmy Award winners of all time, Ray Romano, took the 94th spot on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in the year 2013. Forbes has mentioned that Romano’s success on the big screen was largely attributed to the bulk of his annual paychecks that comes from the syndication of the long time running CBS sitcom. The sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond ran for nine seasons and ended in 2005, continues to have its reign on TV as they show reruns of the show in TV Land. Romano was reportedly earning $18 million annually from the royalties.

I Love Lucy

Over six decades after I Love Lucy ended on air in 1957, the syndication of the groundbreaking show I Love Lucy can still be watched on CBS online streaming as well as The Hallmark Channel. This means that the paychecks are still continually distributed to the executives of the show. It was reported that the reruns of this show pulls in $20 million a year to the CBS executives.

Two and a Half Men

A decade after Charlie Sheen was embroiled in a dispute with the producers of the show, CBS, regarding his personal problems that eventually lead to him getting fired from the show. The show has been on reruns for three years now and still consistently ranks high on the gaining audiences. It was reported that Sheen earns about $100 million from the royalties of the show but he did sold his profit share on the show’s rights for $27 million in 2016.

SpongeBob SquarePants

While the main character of the show lives in a pineapple under the sea, he sure is worth a billion dollar yearly. The hit show of Nickelodeon has been raking in some solid cash for the producers of the show as the show plays on air. With over 700 license partners around the world, Bikini Bottom’s friendly fry cook has been turned into one of the most iconic cartoon characters of all time. It was reported that the producers of the show make about $8 million annually from the reruns of the show.

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is one of the biggest syndication deals of all time to this day. CBS was paid a hefty paycheck of $1.5 million per episode by TBS to get the show syndicated on their network. Fox on the other hand has paid $500,000 per episode of The Big Bang Theory. Though it was not disclosed how much each of the casts received from the royalties, it was reported that Jim Parsons who played Sheldon Cooper receives about $10 million annually from the show’s royalties.

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Sources: Go Banking Rates, The Things, Living Alot