How much money do soap opera performers get paid?

Brendad Ickson will know the answer to this.

They get paid in fucks

I've always wondered this as well.

A woman from my home town who is around my age was offered a soap role. She turned it down. She did get roles in some films and tv shows that did not go into syndication, I wonder if she now regrets turning down the soap. She moved back to our hometown when the roles dried up (because she aged beyond 40).

Back in the day there were so many appearances and extras. Now, being on a soap has none of that and the production are scaled back so much. You never see a restaurant full of background actors or any high production sets.

didly squat😆

I can't believe none of these contracts have ever been leaked.

A general contract runs in weeks not years. The big names on the shows probably get close to 1 million a year but the salaries have dropped over all due to ratings dropping and less soaps. Game shows and Talks shows are cheaper to produce. A typical contract player will make about 200-250 thousand a year. There are background players, under 5 which are less than five lines and then contract players. In their prime the big names were probably making over 1 million a year, Lucci probably the most out of anyone.

[quote] Back in the day there were so many appearances and extras. Now, being on a soap has none of that and the production are scaled back so much. You never see a restaurant full of background actors or any high production sets.

I was thinking about the scaled back productions recently when I was watching the episodes about John Black's funeral on Days of Our Lives. In some of the flashbacks to footage from the 80s and 90s, everything was different and no scaled back as it is today.

I have wondered if Victoria Wyndham was highly paid on Another World. After the show ended, she pretty much stopped working as an actress. I wonder if it's possibly she saved up a lot of her money and she just rode off into the sunset after the show was canned.

R10 Victoria Wyndham also made money from her art. The sculptures made by Rachel were Victoria’s creations.

they get laid

It's always been a bit of a secret. Carolyn Hinsey (mooooo) wrote a book a few years back where she talked a lot about scale, starting salaries and base salaries, but still didn't really expose who made what.

There were a few very high paid actors/actresses in the millions during the peak years of the 80s. No one on the air currently is being paid that now. There may be a handful in the 300K to 500K but not many. Most actors took pay cuts to keep their shows on the air.

Most middle-line actors who have been on their shows for a while are probably in the 100s, maybe low 200s.

I have always wondered what Victoria Wyndham made as well as Beverley McKinsey while on AW. I do know that Denise Alexander was offered a $75k a year contract for joining GH in 1973. I think that same year, Jacqueline Courtney and George Reinholt (Alice & Steve, AW) were offered each $70k per year contracts. Back then that was considered alot of money for a soap star.

[quote]I have wondered if Victoria Wyndham was highly paid on Another World. After the show ended, she pretty much stopped working as an actress.

She didn't want to stop, she just couldn't get cast in anything. She did one Law & Order:SVU episode, and she moved to California for a short time, but nothing.

There have been hints, here and there, over the years. Back in the 1970s a TIME magazine quoted the actor who played John Randolph on Another World saying something like "stage actress Julie Harris was only making $35 thousand a year" implying he made more as a second or third tier character.

In the most recent P&G thread, in a linked interview with Beverlee McKinsey, I believe she said she fought for more when moving from Another World to Texas, and was getting three times as much on Texas. She said she was the highest paid at the time.

How much do soap opera actors get paid?

$55,000 per year: Soap opera stars earn, on average, an annual salary of just over $52,000, according to Zippia. ZipRecruiter provides a similar figure at just under $57,000.

$1,517 per day: Soap operas are covered under the SAG-AFTRA Netcode contract, ensuring performers earn daily minimum rates. In June 2024, SAG and producers agreed to extend the current contract for one year, with a 7% increase in pay, meaning daily minimum rates land at $1,517 for soap operas 60 minutes and longer.

I had an acquaintance who was on a Soap and I don't think he was paid a ton of money but he lived in a nice upper middle class hood, nothing real fancy but nice. However he supplemented his earnings by doing appearances at fan conventions and autograph shows almost every weekend which I think probably paid more than the soap gig

[quote]I believe she said she fought for more when moving from Another World to Texas, and was getting three times as much on Texas. She said she was the highest paid at the time.

Beverlee would have been one of the top paid actors on Another World, which was one of the highest rated soaps in the 1970s.

It is rumored she negotiated a salary near $1 million per year to move to Texas. Never been confirmed, just rumored. But she was definitely the highest paid actor in daytime when she got that salary..

And she was given star billing

All the regulars are still getting at least 200K a year. The vets millions.

R17 I'm pretty sure Kelly Ripa is worth more than Lauralee Bell. I remember 20 years ago, Kelly was making $20+ million/year with Live, sitcom, and endorsements. She's only added more to her business ventures since then with multiple properties, productions, books, podcasts, etc. Adding her husband to her show added more to her combined net worth. Kelly Ripa never got bigger acting roles, but she made a smart choice hosting and the opportunities that came along with it.

In the 90s and 2000s, reportedly big names like Tony Geary, Eric Braeden, Susan Lucci and Deidre Hall all pulled in salaries near a $1 million a year. Or in Geary's case, he got a substantial salary that included six months off every year, which became the equivalent of $1 million.

In the past 15-20 years as soap ratings have declined, so have the salaries. Been many reports of actors balking when asked to take a pay cut. Multiple reports of actors salaries being cut by a third. Or even by half.

I would speculate the top paid actors are now making somewhere between $350,000 to $500,000. That would include Eric Braeden and Maurice Benard. Now that Steve Burton is back at GH, he likely is making something close to what Benard is making.

Reportedly, for the two years Justin Hartley was on Y&R as Adam, he was the second highest paid actor on the show, after Braeden.

What’s the average age of a soap opera viewer?

Kelly Ripa - yeah. Does her aging handsome shrimp go-go dancer husband get a salary or an allowance from her purse?

More than grand opera performers?

It's hard to believe soaps are still around. So many women work, not to mention there are so many other viewing choices.

Miss Viki Sleestack (The 3rd Viki) easily made over a million a year.

The "working" part doesn't necessarily fly anymore with streaming. In my day it was housewives, retirees, shift workers, students so I get what you mean.

You people who watch soap operas are so embarrassing

Eat shit

Only if we have the displeasure of knowing you r30.

People who still claim to not watch soap operas, watch soap operas.

I’m watching Beyond the Gates right now.

I think my mom was the only mom in school who watched these, she didn’t want to work.

I remember Susan Lucci being called "the highest paid" soap performer in the early 90s, $1 million per year.

To weigh 70 pounds and make a million dollars an episode…

These days:

Newbies make scale plus 3% with annual raises.

Actors with a few years under their belt make scale plus 10% with annual raises.

Longtime Vets who are supporting without a major story make scale plus 20% with annual raises.

Front Burner Performers and key supporting players with experience and a fanbase make between $3500 and $4000 an episode.

Star performers, such as Maurice Benard, Steve Burton, Eric Braden, Michelle Stafford, etc., make in the $300K—$350K range, but they are rare.

Y&R actors are the highest paid. Followed GH, BTG and BB. Days actors fall under a different rate because they're exclusively streaming and not on a network. BB actors get a lower rate because half-hour shows have different minimums, but BB actors make it up in other ways via foreign money.

[quote] All the regulars are still getting at least 200K a year. The vets millions.

No actor on any soap is making a million dollars. There were a handful back in the day that were - Lucci, Eric Braeden, some of the GH stars - but not in 2025.

Yes, some actors like Steve Burton, Laura Wright, Maurice Benard (GH) are likely making in the 200-300K range. But most others are lower than that. And a lot of longtime actors on many shows are actually on recurring basis (Tracey Bregman and Christian LeBlanc, to name but two.)

(Note: I see R38 posted above me, figures slightly different but yes, I agree that's roughly the range for the actors where the show considers them key actors or stars.)

Today's soap actors are just working actors now and not really big stars. The John McCooks, the Katherine Kelly Langs - OG cast members with 30 plus years on air probably work at this point to maintain health insurance and a steady income. I mention B&B actors because they have the benefit of being an international hit. Especially in Italy where they can make tens out thousands for appearances, endorsement deals etc. I am not sure if they get paid residuals like syndicated shows since bell phillps owns the show lock stock and barrel.

I would be curious to know what the actors on The Gates are making.

Speaking of soaps… I was listening to an interview with the actress who played Angie Bonpensiero on THE SOPRANOS, and she was on ANOTHER WORLD for a few years in the 1970s.

It’s touching to me when B and C list actors hang on for so long, then are eventually rewarded with a good project.

My friend was on a soap in the 90's in a kind of long term role as a bad girl. She wasn't paid much but learned a shit ton about the production industry and made a career out of that. She kept inserting herself into all the departments, asking questions, helping out, even though she wasn't allowed by the unions, etc. Hey it paid off.

My friend was a beautiful blonde model in the 80s who was always getting bit parts on soaps, which she did well.

Then she was finally given a big scene as what could have become a reoccurring character. She froze under the pressure and became completely wooden.

Was not invited back.

I'm sad that soaps are dying. Watching some light, fluff stuff for easy consumption, right after work - I love it. Life is stressful enough. Allow me my 30 minutes of no politics and just low-level drama.

Kelly Ripa is still expanding her empire.

You can do a lot on 500 calories a day.

They kind of aren’t dying though, R44. There used to be too many soaps; they right-sized.

CBS just launched Beyond The Gates, which has landed on “best new shows of 2025” lists. Days Of Our Lives got a new lease on life after moving to Peacock, where it’s one of the top performers. Y&R pulls in 3 million live viewers per ep, more than many primetime shows that are considered hits. General Hospital got a ton of buzz for its 60th anniversary and, between Demi Moore’s comeback and launching Nicholas Alexander Chavez, burnished its reputation as an incubator for talent. It also performs very well for Hulu.

R38, I’m confused about your math. You say front burner performers with a fan base can make $3500 an episode, whereas Maurice Benard might pull in $350k per year. But Mo was in 160 episodes last year, which would be just over $2k an episode. If Mo makes $4k per ep, his total salary would be over half a million.

I would think Benard and others of his calibre on the other soaps make half a million. But that's the upper limit.

The million dollar club was relatively large for a short while. Some made appreciably more than that if only because someone like Slee was getting it and didn't have the Qs of a Lucci or a Braeden par example.

Oh FFS! Benard is getting way more than 500k per year.

Deidre Hall is making at least 500 as well.

This is from a soap forum. Apparently the top players get a lot of money per episodes.

r51 claims Eric Braden gets $25,000 per episode at 2 days a week. That means he makes about $2.6 million a year.

I don't think so

Kim Zimmers biography was good. Of course she played Reva Shayne on GL. She addressed the paycheck situation. When she left GL in July 1990, all the soap tabloids and regular tabloids plastered headlines about Kim quitting a million dollar job. Kim said she wasn't making nearly that money and she wouldn't have left GL if she were.

I think the universal understanding among actors is that you do soaps at the beginning of your career to learn acting and handle direction, not to make a boatload of money. You sharpen your skills and create your brand. It's like an apprenticeship. It also helps you to keep your health insurance.

But there must be more to it. Some major weekly soap stars, e.g. Dynasty, Knots Landing, even Patrick Duffy, went back doing soaps - long term or as a guest stint. I wonder what their reason for doing soaps were. It can't be the money. Ted Shakelford was probably not the highest paid night-time TV actor. But he got a steady check for 14 years with probably a pretty decent salary. I doubt he needed the money. Did these actors do the job just to perform in their art and sharpen their skills?

Year-round acting jobs in LA are extremely thin on the ground these days. It’s not easy to cobble together a six-figure salary with guest shots on streaming and the few remaining network primetime shows, and you have to spend half the year in Vancouver and Atlanta to do it.

The whole industry has contracted so much that soap gigs are more desirable than they used to be, even if they don’t pay like they used to. GH, in particular, is full of actors with primetime and film credits.

[bold] The backstage is always fascinating. [/bold] Kim Zimmer (Reva) said P+G tried to renegotiate her contract for a pay cut before her current contract was over. She refused. She agreed to re-sign with lesser pay but only AFTER her current contract was over. It became a little bit of a stalemate. KZ was adamant about them honoring the contract THEY signed and offered her. She did think at that point she might be fired but (as I recall) she only had about a year left on her contract and P&G waited it out. KZ also said (unconfirmed) that CBS had tried to pull that stunt on Eric Braeden (Victor, YR), to get him to renegotiate for lower pay before his contract expired, until CBS caved, because Braeden was going to walk.

People also have to remember that during the days of big salaries, the ratings and viewer share were larger, which meant more ad dollars to pay for bigger salaries, etc. Most soaps were renegotiating with their bigger stars for 25 - 30% salary cuts beginning in the late 90s/early 2000s. Then, they started giving them a choice of the same guarantee at a lower rate or the same rate, but with a reduced guarantee. The really unlucky ones got both a guarantee reduction and a reduced rate.

Soaps got too bloated in the 80s. Big salaries, bigger sets, designer wardrobes, multiple takes, overtime, and guarantees that were more a suggestion than a rule. There was no way they could sustain it.

For a genre that appealed and targeted for women, it sure treated the actresses beneath the actors, but I guess that's every industry.

She works Hard for the money

Dierdre Hall had to take a signficant pay cut and she makes approximately $55,000 a year now. That's really tough for an actor in their 80s, but hopefully she saved well and there is Social Security and Medicaid...

LA is a pretty expensive city. How do they live on 300k a year? I’m not being facetious.

[quote] LA is a pretty expensive city. How do they live on 300k a year?

Prostitution. Plus that's all tax free money. Very common for the male soap actors to pick up jobs and "meet and greets" one on one.

Dee makes much more than $55,000 a year.

$56,665.23

Dee signed a supposedly record-breaking contract in 1991, which gave her development options for her own projects, as well as other perks like summers off.

Drake and Dee both had lucrative deals when they returned in 2014, but nowhere near as big as before, as the show had survived just fine without them for nearly four years.

[quote] Prostitution. Plus that's all tax free money. Very common for the male soap actors to pick up jobs and "meet and greets" one on one.

Alright, so let's talk about this some more. How much money do soap opera performers get paid for this type of job? And at what corner can I meet and greet them?

r62 The average salary in la is $82,000. Soap actors can manage on double of that.

It's a crime that Laura, Maurice and Steve on GH get paid anything. And then they have the nerve to shill their crap products to fans - Steve's South American Colon Cleanse, Laura's vaginal rejuvenation cream and Maurice's Happy Light for SAD.

TV shows make money on ad revenue. Those rates charged are based on period times of the year, known as sweeps weeks. It's when prime time and daytime shows pull out the stops to garner the ratings. That dictates the ad rates they charge to advertisers. Like the millions of dollars advertisers pay for 30 seconds on the SuperBowl. In 1995 Y&R was getting 7.9 ratings. Today they are getting sub 1s (like .05) That drop in ad rates, while production costs have only gone up mean less money for actors. There is no way people are making 2-3 million for shows getting below a 1.

R57 I remember those stories (and am firmly on KZ’s side)… but wouldn’t she be negotiating with P&G while EB would’ve been dean with Bell Production company? Where does CBS factor in concerning contracts of actors?

The networks pay for the shows in the end so if P&G is negotiating and she reached out to the network to hint she was walking, they might come up with more money.

You know who never got a fair salary?

[bold] NY POST, 2009. Eric Braeden quit!! [/bold] EB sounds like the asshole we've always heard him to be. He says in this article HE should be except from a pay cut!! He doesn't seem to understand it's a business.,

FYI = EB said he took a pay decrease circa 2007 which tracks with what KZ said in her book. I don't know why she named him specifically but she did.

Amazing that they were able to have such high production values and amazing acting back in the day when salaries were low.......

CLARA! Poor Lil Haymen could only afford a toyota tercel.

Beyond the $1,517 per day scale, you sign a "Personal Service Contract," that can be negotiated for any amount.

R73 Those black bitches didn’t deserve as much pay me.

R73 Those black bitches didn’t deserve as much pay as me. ATALL.

You guys are cracking me up tonight..

Regarding Slezak, She strikes me as 750-800K in her prime, not 1 million.

I feel like Andrea Evans probably made bank in her late 80s hey day as Tina. She generated a ton of press and was credited with OLTL being in the top 3 during that period.

R81 I think that when she resigned a contract in 1987- She got 675K- An interviewer asks her this because it was in a tabloid- I will find the video-

R80, you forgot her additional revenue stream of being the face of Sunsweet Prunes for all of the 1980s which had to push her annual income well into the seven figures.

In the 1990s, soaps like Days, Y&R, and GH brought the networks around 200 million each in profit annually. Days had a budget of $52 million per year, so I would assume Y&R and GH had similar budgets. One NBC network person said that Days, alone, paid for their pilot season. The last I heard, Days budget is now around $450K per week. That's why everyone lives in that same room in the Salem Inn and the Kirakis Mansion has one room and Titan Offices is the same set as the police station. This is also why there are no more million-dollar salaries. Quite frankly, I have no idea how Frank Valentini makes GH look so good. Their budget is bigger than Days, but not significantly bigger. I would assume the cast are making the bare minimum, except for the 3 leads.

R84- who are the three leads? Finola, Maurice and Genie?

Most of the shows had severe budget cuts that started around 2005. The cuts are what killed Guiding Light. At the time most soaps had a budget of a few million a week, but GL was only renewed after the producers agreed to bring the budget under a million a week, that's how we got Peapack.

Despite NYC being a great place for Broadway actors to do soap roles, ultimately all the NYC shows shut down and more than even the actor's salaries, apparently the costs of studio space and storage for sets is what killed them. And this was in the 2008-2012 era, imagine what those costs would be like now.

The late Wade Nichols was on The Edge of Night for five years in a principal role, but he never moved out of his small NYC apartment, so I'm guessing he didn't make all that much money as a soap actor.

I haven't watched a daytime soap since the early 90s, but I see the magazines when I'm standing in line at the grocery store. Eric Braden was on every single cover, and I could only assume that he was banging all the magazine editors.

One of the issues with shooting in NYC is the cost of studio space and set storage. It's an issue in LA too, but it's different than NYC. One of the reasons why sets got smaller is that shows keep up more sets now. In the beforetimes, shows would only keep up certain sets all the time and bring out others as needed. If you've ever wondered why your favorite couple is fucking on a couch in the hospital, it's because that was the set that was up that day and available.

R88- I recall that Braeden had the "highest Q rating" for years. I recall that James DePaiva from OLTL was way up there too..

In the mid 80s maybe 1986 Phil Donahue asked Gloria Monty can I superstar make $100,000 a year she said yes after hesitating for a second Phil said $200,000 a year? She said why quibble.

R90 Jeanne Cooper had the highest Q rating over anyone when she was alive. Soap Opera DIgest and Soap Opera Weekly overhwhelmingly had Days on their covers over any other show. The reason being they had the highest 18-34 female ratings and those were the people who bought the magazines most. SOD was so popular they had their own awards show in Primetime at one point. Some of the shows refused to keep working with the magazine since they were so Days heavy.

Ellen Holly made a poster of her yearly salary that she would drag around with her to share with anyone who had a pulse. Starting at 7:45.

She topped out at $148,000 a year (in 1984) when she was a secondary supporting actor on OLTL.

Will someone please briefly explain the running bit with Ellen Holly and Slezak and oltl?