Variety posted a survey of TV salaries, broken down into Comedy, Drama and Reality/News/Host categories. Check out all the charts at this link. Ellen DeGeneres sits at the top of the reality/host list at $50 million, with Judge Judy Sheindlin right behind her at $47 million.
Katy Perry’s $25 million American Idol salary lands her in fourth place. Ryan Seacrest is listed twice for his $15 million Live with Kelly and Ryan payday and slightly lower $12 million for American Idol.
Interestingly, there are no The Voice coaches on the list. If there were, they’d chart high on the list. According to this May 2017 CheatSheet report, Blake Shelton makes a little more than $13 million PER SEASON, which would come to $26 million-ish a year. Adam Levine earns about the same. Miley Cyrus, also brings in about $13 million.
Ellen DeGeneres The Ellen DeGeneres Show /Syndicated $50m
Judith Sheindlin Judge Judy/Syndicated $47m
Matt Lauer Today/NBC $25m
Katy Perry American Idol/ABC $25m
Kelly Ripa Live With Kelly & Ryan/Syndicated $22m
Megyn Kelly NBC News $18m
Robin Roberts Good Morning America/ABC $18m
Jimmy Fallon The Tonight Show/NBC $16m
Stephen Colbert The Late Show/CBS $15m
Jimmy Kimmel Jimmy Kimmel Live/ABC $15m
Pat Sajak Wheel of Fortune/Syndicated $15m
Ryan Seacrest Live With Kelly & Ryan/Syndicated $15m
George Stephanopoulos ABC News $15m
Anderson Cooper CNN $12m
David Letterman Untitled interview show/Netflix* $12m
Conan O’Brien Conan/TBS $12m
Ryan Seacrest American Idol/ABC $12m
Alec Baldwin Match Game/ABC $3m
Jamie Foxx Beat Shazam/Fox $3m
Mike Myers The Gong Show/ABC $3m
