Who Are TV's Top Earners?

If you're an actor who lands a lead role on a TV series, you can count on a big payday. But it won't be as big as it used to be.

Network and studio executives tell TV Guide Magazine they've adopted a get-tough policy on salaries for stars of the new fall shows. While the salary for a lead has been $150,000 to $200,000 per episode in recent years, most deals for stars of new series were between $75,000 and $125,000.
"No one broke the bank on anything this year," says one former studio head.A case in point is a negotiation with a veteran film actor who for years has been coveted by several networks to do series TV. He was in discussions for a lead role in one of the new dramas that made the fall schedule. His asking price was $250,000. The network and the studio said no way. When the actor refused to go below $200,000, the network and s...