Some news: The Pearson clan is officially bringing in the big bucks ahead of their highly-anticipated season 3 premiere.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the five central cast members on This Is Us will now make millions of dollars each during the third season of the hit NBC family drama. Thanks to renegotiations of their contracts, Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, and Justin Hartley will reportedly make $250,000 each per episode for the 18 episodes of the show's third season, making their total salary for the season (with signing bonuses factored in) $4.5 million.
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This Is Us may be famous for making fans weep, but only tears of joy will be shed when the stars cash these massive paychecks.
The oodles of cash flowing towards the This Is Us stars makes sense, considering that the series is a critically-beloved Emmys darling and highly-rated series. However, the pay raise across the board is also a way to level the playing field amongst all the actors, especially when you consider the large salary gap that once existed between onscreen siblings Hartley and Metz.
During the first season of the show, former soap opera star Hartley, who plays eldest Big Three brother Kevin, earned $75,000 per episode. Relative newcomer Metz — who, at the time, was best known for her role on American Horror Story: Freak Show — earned just $40,000 per episode, despite their parts receiving equal screen time. (It is unclear how much Brown, who plays the third side of the sibling triangle, earned for his portrayal of Randall.)
The cast of This Is Us is hardly the first to negotiate better pay following the success of their show. The cast of Big Little Lies recently made headlines for the massive salaries its stars would earn for the upcoming sophomore season. Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman will now earn around $1 million per episode of the HBO series. The cast of Netflix's 13 Reasons Why also scored bigger salaries for their upcoming third season, as did the star players on Stranger Things.
Season 3 of This Is Us premieres on NBC Tuesday at 9 p.m.
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