Global Insight Local Knowledge

Comedy actors (per episode, US dollars):

Charlie Sheen (Two and a Half Men) $1.25 million
Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) $550,000
Marcia Cross (Desperate Housewives) $400,000
Tina Fey (30 Rock) $350,000
Jeremy Piven (Entourage) $350,000
Steve Carell (The Office) $297,000
Adrian Grenier (Entourage) $200,000
Ed O’Neill (Modern Family) $100,000
Johnny Galecki (Big Bang Theory) $60,000

Drama actors (per episode):

Hugh Laurie (House) $400,000+
Christopher Meloni & Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU) $395,000 (each)
David Caruso (CSI: Miami) $375,000
Marg Helgenberger (CSI) $375,000
Laurence Fishburne (CSI) $350,000
Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy) $250,000
Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) $200,000
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) $175,000
Lauren Graham (Parenthood) $150,000
Nathan Fillion (Castle) $100,000
Jon Hamm (Mad Men) $100,000
Alex O’Loughlin (Hawaii Five-0) $100,000
Anna Paquin (True Blood) $75,000

Talk show hosts (per year):

Oprah Winfrey $315 million
Judge Judy Sheindlin $45 million
David Letterman (The Late Show) $28 million
Jay Leno (The Tonight Show) $25 million
Conan O’Brien (The Conan O’Brien Show) $10 million
Ellen DeGeneres (The Ellen DeGeneres Show) $8 million

Reality TV (per year):

Ryan Seacrest (American Idol) $15 million
Joel McHale (The Soup) $2 million
Piers Morgan (America’s Got Talent) $2 million
Kate Gosselin (Kate Plus Eight) $250,000 per episode
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi (Jersey Shore) $30,000 per episode

News (per year):

Matt Lauer (Today) $16 million+
Katie Couric (CBS) $15 million
Diane Sawyer (ABC) $12 million
Bill O’Reilly (Fox News) $10 million
Wolf Blitzer (CNN) $3 million

See TVGuide.com for the full list

Highest paid actors on TV.