September 19, 2024
Pamela Littky/Disney
Quinta Brunson, bottom left, and the rest of the 'Abbott Elementary' cast reportedly negotiated significant pay increases with studio Warner Bros. Television in advance of the sitcom's return to ABC for the Season 4 premiere on Oct. 9.
The award-winning cast of ABC's hit sitcom "Abbott Elementary" will be handsomely paid for their scrappy depiction of Philadelphia's public school system as the show enters its fourth season next month.
The six members of the original cast scored significant pay bumps in contract renegotiations with Warner Bros. Television, the studio that produces the series, Deadline reported. While the actors' salaries for previous seasons were not reported, Deadline said many of them will see their per-episode earnings double or triple.
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Star Quinta Brunson, who plays Janine Teagues, reportedly will make in the range of $350,000-$400,000 per episode for acting. Brunson also serves as executive producer for "Abbot Elementary" and is paid for that role under a separate deal with the studio. Brunson won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series last year and also won a Golden Globe in 2022 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy.
Brunson's main cast mates — Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James, Tyler James Williams, Lisa Ann Walter and Chris Perfetti — all will reportedly earn upwards of $200,000 per episode. Ralph won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2022 and was nominated for the same award each of the last two years.
William Stanford Davis, who plays Mr. Johnson in the series, will make a reported $100,000 per episode. He became a regular in Season 2.
As Deadline explains, network TV actors usually sign multiyear deals when they're cast in new series and then renegotiate their contracts after the second or third season if the show has long-term promise. Since premiering in 2021, "Abbott Elementary" has become a rare scripted broadcast series to draw regular award recognition. The show's Season 3 premiere drew 5.91 million total viewers, according to TheWrap.
The payroll for "Abbott Elementary" falls short of some of the top TV gigs both currently and over the years. Pay per episode for the top stars on major network shows like "Seinfeld" ($1 million), "Friends" ($1 million), "Home Improvement" ($1.25 million) and "Everybody Loves Raymond" ($1.725 million) peaked during the golden era of sitcom viewership in the 1990s. For "The Office," which premiered in 2005, Steve Carrell reportedly earned $175,000 per episode after the third season. Co-stars John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer each made about $100,000 per episode starting in Season 3, up from a reported $20,000 per episode during the first two seasons.
On a bigger-budget streaming series, like Apple TV's "The Morning Show," for comparison, Carrell reportedly made about $750,000 per episode in the first season. The show's co-stars, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, each reportedly make $2 million per episode.
"Abbott Elementary" will return for its fourth season on Oct. 9. The new season will have 22 episodes, returning to that number after last season was shortened due to strikes by writers and actors.
