In the opinion of a lot of people, the world has been in the golden age of television over the last several years. Of course, that certainly is up for debate since some people miss shows like All In The Family, The Brady Bunch, or Sanford and Son. However, there is no doubt that since there are so many channels and streaming services, more shows have been produced in the last few years than at any other time in the past.
Since there are so many shows these days, most people have no idea how much most TV stars make. Of course, they likely assume that the people who star in hit shows make a lot of money but they might be amazed to learn how much some TV stars have made over the years.
Easily among the most memorable sitcoms from the last few decades, over the years Will & Grace managed to amass an extremely devoted fan base. Despite how much some viewers enjoyed the series, most viewers were had no idea how much the show’s stars were paid for their roles. However, it is pretty fascinating to learn the exact figures.
Making An Impact
When some people look back on Will & Grace’s legacy, they forget how impactful the show was at one time. An incredibly popular series, the show was the highest-rated sitcom among adults 18 to 49 from 2001 to 2005. Of course, that is an impressive fear for any show to pull off. However, it is especially amazing that Will & Grace was such a big hit since it debuted in 1998. After all, that same year there was so much controversy about Ellen Degeneres’ character on her show Ellen coming out that ABC put a parental advisory at the beginning of each episode.
For further proof of how much Will & Grace impacted the public discourse, look no further than the fact that Joe Biden brought the show up during the debate over same-sex marriage. Since Biden was serving as the Vice President at that time, he was asked about the issue of same-sex marriage and he made it clear that he was supportive of the LGBTQ+ community gaining equal rights. Amazingly enough, Biden then went on to credit Will & Grace with changing the way many people viewed the LGBTQ+ community for the better.
“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights — all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that.” “I think ‘Will & Grace’ probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has ever done so far.”
The Original Run
Over the years, there have been many rumors about some of the stars of Will & Grace supposedly feuding behind the scenes. While it is always hard to ascertain how much truth there is to reports like that, one thing seems certain, the show’s star had a lot of chemistry on screen. Originally on the air from 1998 until 2006, at one time Will & Grace was such a phenomenon that a slew of celebrities appeared on the show for one episode. For example, major stars like Gene Wilder, Madonna, Ellen DeGeneres, Patrick Dempsey, Alec Baldwin, Demi Lovato, Elton John, and Britney Spears all cameoed on Will & Grace.
Given how successful Will & Grace was during the ‘90s and 2000s, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the show’s stars were paid well for their roles. As of the time of this writing, it isn’t clear how much the stars of Will & Grace were paid for the early seasons of the show. However, according to an Entertainment Weekly report, by the show’s seventh season, Eric McCormack and Debra Messing made $400,000 per episode. Amazingly enough, Messing, McCormack, Megan Mullally, and Sean Hayes were then paid $600,000 per episode for Will & Grace’s eighth season. Unfortunately, EW didn’t outline how much Mullally and Hayes were paid before the eighth season.
The Revival
After Will & Grace’s original run came to an end in 2006, most people assumed that the world would never get to see any more new episodes of the show. Of course, that assumption proved to be wrong as Will & Grace returned with new episodes in 2017 and it was a big enough hit that the revival stuck around for three seasons.
In order to convince Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally, and Sean Hayes to come back to Will & Grace, NBC had to pay them a pretty penny. That said, during the revival years, the stars’ salaries never came close to what they were paid for the eighth season. Instead, Messing, McCormack, Hayes, and Mullally were reportedly paid $100,000 per episode for the first two seasons and $350,000 per episode for the third. While those are impressive figures, the four stars never even came close to being the highest-paid actors in television history.
