As one of the most popular shows on TV right now, This Is Us features an ensemble cast that even blindfolded audiences could recognize in the dark. And though a lot of emotionally devastating things happen on that show, some very happy and positive things went down behind the scenes, with the quintet of Pearson family members all getting quite noteworthy pay raises as This Is Us heads into Season 3. Chrissy Metz, for example, will be making six times what she earned when Season 1 was being produced!
With This Is Us going into what will no doubt be a big year of touching moments and clue-dangling mysteries, 20th Century Fox Television has renegotiated the contracts for the drama's five leads, including Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley and Sterling K. Brown. For their work across the 18-episode season, the group will see their paychecks bumped up to $250,000 per episode, which includes the signing bonuses added in, according to THR. However, it is not as clear if This Is Us' more prominent co-stars like Susan Kelechi and Chris Sullivan will get pay increases for their portrayals of Beth and Toby, respectively. (Here's hoping!)
This news is definitely great for all involved, and the new salaries are certainly more reflective of just how widely accepted these actors' characters have been in our homes for the past two fall seasons. Whenever This Is Us first started up, its biggest star was arguably Heroes and Gilmore Girls vet Milo Ventimiglia, who was earning $115,000 an episode. Smallville vet Justin Hartley got far less than that, at $75,000 an ep, while American Horror Story: Freak Show recurrer Chrissy Metz clearly got the shortest end of the stick, bringing in $40,000 an episode. But there's no looking back to past roles in order to figure out the cast's paydays today, since they're all equally responsible for turning This Is Us into a primetime sensation.
If anyone was worried that This Is Us might be weeding Jack out of the storylines after his death finally got revealed in Season 2, that's clearly not the case, with Milo Ventimiglia set to make millions in Season 3. His backstory in Vietnam will be explored, as will some of his other early-life tales. And 20th Century Fox TV clearly thought those scenes, and everything else creator Dan Fogelman has in store, were great enough to earn the show's leads quite a bit more money.
To be sure, This Is Us' cast may be making a lot more moolah than they did last year, but the NBC drama does not have nearly the highly paid cast on TV. One should probably look to The Big Bang Theory for that, with its lead actors earning upwards of $900,000 per episode. (Some where possibly earning more, too, but agreements were made to take pay cuts in order to allow for parity with co-stars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch.) But then Big Bang is generally the most watched show on a year-to-year basis, with even its repeat episodes roping in audiences by the millions, so that money is presumably deserved. And considering This Is Us manages to beat out Big Bang and all of CBS' other shows in the 18-49 age demographic, that cast's pay bump is also well-deserved.
This Is Us Season 3 will make its debut on NBC on Tuesday, September 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see what new and returning shows are popping up elsewhere, head to our fall TV premiere schedule.
