Just about everyone knows ‘Friends’, the classic show about six 20-somethings and their many romantic and career struggles.
In fact, so many people loved ‘Friends’ that, in 2004, the show’s season finale became the fourth most watch television broadcast in history, behind only the finales for ‘Seinfeld’, ‘Cheers’, and ‘M*A*S*H’.
However, not everyone knows just how much money the series’ stars made for their work.
As the show’s lead performers, Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing), and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) received an incredibly large amount of money. After all was said and done, each actor received $88 million for starring in 236 episodes, most of which were 22 minutes in length.
In addition to their main salaries, each lead received syndication royalties from the fifth season onward. At the time, such an agreement was unheard of in the television industry, which normally only gave royalty agreements to owners of the show.
