Everybody Loves Raymond star Ray Romano set a Guinness World Record when he was paid nearly $2 million per episode for the beloved show’s ninth and final season in 2005.
Two decades on, the actor is part of an elite list of actors still raking in millions of dollars in residuals, long after their shows went off the air.
Fans were stunned to learn Romano earns up to $18 million annually in syndication residuals, per Forbes and Vanity Fair, thanks to the show’s continued streaming on services such as Paramount+ and Peacock, with some quipping that he ‘never has to work again.’
The 68-year-old, who played the sarcastic sports writer Raymond Barone on the show created by Phil Rosenthal from 1996 to 2005, is worth an estimated $200 million today, with much of his wealth said to come from his residuals and backend profits.
The eighth season of Everybody Loves Raymond – which began airing in 2003 – gained notoriety after a landmark cast contract dispute led by Robert Barone actor Brad Garrett.
Romano became the highest-paid television star in history at the time with his $40 million deal for the season, equating to $1.8 million a week.
Everybody Loves Raymond star Ray Romano set a Guinness World Record when he was paid $1.94 million per episode for the beloved show’s final season in 2005. From left, Peter Boyle, Doris Roberts, Romano, Patricia Heaton, Monica Horan and Brad Garrett in the last series
Two decades on, the 68-year-old is part of an elite list of actors raking in millions of dollars in residuals, long after their shows went off the air
Romano’s contract renewal also stipulated he would get royalties from syndicated reruns of older episodes – infuriating Garrett, who, in comparison, earned around $160,000 an episode.
Garrett refused to show up for work unless CBS negotiated a new contract – leading to his character being axed from the first episode and threatened with being written out permanently.
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His loyal castmates Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle supported him by all calling out sick.
His representative said at the time: ‘Ray deserves every penny, all Brad wants is compensation commensurate with what other similarly situated actors have made in the past and are making today.’
This forced CBS to reenter negotiations with the cast – with Garrett’s pay rising to $250,000 an episode per EW, and $315,000 per week for the ninth and final season.
The new contacts included deals on syndication, with all the stars, bar Romano, granted 0.5 percent ownership of the show, with Romano and the producers sacrificing portions of their backend profits to make the deal happen.
Branding the dispute ‘inevitable,’ Romano said: ‘When my salary came out in the papers, I knew stuff would happen. I’d do exactly the same thing.’
Romano reportedly made a whopping $1.94 million an episode for the entire final season in 2005, which, adjusted for inflation, is around $3.2 million an episode.
The actor’s reported residuals amount places him among the TV greats, with Friends icon Lisa Kudrow recently revealing the cast members still earn around $20 million annually in residuals, 22 years after the show’s final season aired.
Fans were stunned to learn Romano earns a reported $18 million annually in syndication residuals, per Forbes and Vanity Fair, thanks to streaming on services including Paramount+ and Peacock. Above, the original cast during the show’s first season in 1996
The cast with series creator Phil Rosenthal on the set of the reunion special last year
Kudrow, 62 – who played the eccentric Phoebe Buffay from 1994 to 2004 – starred in Friends alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry.
The cast famously negotiated their salaries together, climbing from $22,500 per episode in the first season to $1 million each by the final two seasons.
They later reunited for a one-off special on HBO Max in 2021, reportedly earning $2.5 million apiece for their reprisals.
Speaking to The Times recently, Kudrow said she’s only recently been able to ‘appreciate just how great’ the show was.
‘There was a genius at work. And whatever any of us do in the future, we will never experience something like that again,’ she told the publication.
In contrast, former Brady Bunch star Eve Plumb recently published a memoir called Happiness Included: Jan Brady and Beyond, in which she wrote, ‘If I had a dime for every rerun episode, I’d pay off the national deficit. I don’t.’
Lisa Kudrow left fans stunned after revealing the eye-watering sums she and her Friends co-stars still pocket every year in residuals
The actress, 62, who is currently starring in a new season of The Comeback, revealed the cast still rake in an astonishing $20 million a year in residuals
To be clear, she reiterated on the PauseRewind podcast, per KOMO News, ‘We don’t make residuals.’
The successful ABC sitcom ran from 1969 to 1974, and its reruns have been popular among younger generations for decades.
Susan Olsen, 64, who played Cindy on the series, previously explained on the Oprah Network’s Where Are They Now series that the cast’s lack of residual pay is the result of ‘the way things were before 1973.’
