With whom is your soap's money invested?

[DavidEvanSmith]

On another thread I took a stab at ranking where General Hospital has their money invested. Here's my guesses:

Top Tier Salary: Maurice Benard, Steve Burton, Laura Wright, Anthony Geary, and Sarah Brown.

Second Tier Salary: Nancy Lee Grahn, Rick Hearst, Ingo Rademacher, Rebecca Herbst, Tyler Christopher, Leslie Charleson, and Kelly Monaco.

Third Tier Salary: Greg Vaughan, Julie Marie Berman, Brandon Barash, Kirsten Storms, Megan Ward, John J. York, Kimberly McCullough, Jason Thompson, Jane Elliot, and John Ingle.

Fourth Tier Salary: Bradford Anderson, Sonya Eddy, Nazanin Boniadi, Claire Coffee, Jason Cook. And maybe heavy recurring players like Lisa LoCicero and Carolyn Henessy.

And that's the whole contract cast right there! In coming up with that, I took into account their longevity with the show (interrupted or uninterrupted), perceivable star power/history in the genre (from TPTB's perspective), commitment to storyline and visibility for their characters, how heavily/not they are promoted to the audience. I should say that I believe this is how it IS, but definitely don't think that's how it SHOULD be. I also figure we see so much of characters like Spinelli and Nadine because they are cheaper to write for.

Anyone want to guess at how GH or any other soap ranks their salaries for their contract cast?

[bandbfan]

On B&B the 4 vets would make the most, with SF probably making the most of those.

I would think it would basically be by seniority, but with Heather Tom being so high up because of her popularity.

I guess I would say:

1 - Flannery, Lang, McCook, Moss

2 - Tylo, Wagner, Tom, Down, Kay, Harmon

3 - Jones, Mills, Gareis, Lowder, Riker

4 - Woods, Beemer, Battle

I didn't really order the individual rows the way I think that breaks up. And I'm sure Betty White makes a pretty penny for making her scarce appearances, possibly Patrick Duffy as well. I don't know about Riker because she's not in the opening anymore and was removed from the websites cast list (although she's not in the "other cast" section either).

[rangethatrover]

Oh this is trashy fun:

OLTL

Top:

800-900,000 per year- Erika Slezak ( I am assuming she has not taken a paycut-yet.

650,000 per year -Robert S Woods (I am assuming no paycut- YET- I can see him being the first to be slashed)

Close to the top and probably the most undeserved

500,000- Michael Easton

Next:

Robin Strasser (She has made it clear she took a huge paycut)

350,000

Hilary B Smith

350,000

KDP

300,000

Jerry Ver Dorn

300,000

Trevor St John

250,000

I bet a good portion of OLTL's midlevel (Williamson, Lavosier, Archer, possibly Haskell cast makes in the 175-250,000 range

21 and younger ones with contract and storyline:

100-125,000 per year

[Darn]

Oh lord shoot me if Brandon Buddy and Kirsten Alderson are making a hundred thousand a year. I'm sure it's entirely possible with their constant screentime (their guarantee is probably like 5 days) but still...shoot me.

[Cat]

I'm guessing Laura Wright doesn't get as much as Mo and Steve. I think she's just psyched to be always front-burner on a much-talked-about soap would mitigate a slightly lower GH salary. In fact, I'm willing to bet that Kelly Monaco and Wright have switched places between 1st and 2nd tier on your list, DES.

I also suspect Kimberley McCullough is on 2nd tier pay as opposed to 3rd. I think GH had to unroll its chequebook to get her to come back in the first place. The fact that they had her headlining NightShift indicates that ABC see Robin & Patrick as a real money couple.

Of course, if Vanessa Marcil were to return to GH, I wonder whether some of these pay regimes would be blown out of the water. She really is the only proven ratings-raiser on the show in the last decade.

-----

As for across the soap world, I am guessing that Maurice Benard, Eric Braeden and Steve Burton make head-and-shoulders the most money, salary-wise. $1 million, easy. However, seven-figure salaries are probably no longer viable anymore so they better enjoy it while their current contracts are in play.

[JackPeyton]

I dont know about ranking each soap, but id say that Braden, Mo B., Steve Burton, Tony G., Kim Zimmer, Susan Lucci, Erica S., Flannery are among the top 10 paid soap stars.

[DavidEvanSmith]

Okay, so I'm gonna try AMC's cast... which is a little harder to tell for me!

Top Tier: Susan Lucci, David Canary, Cameron Mathison, Thorsten Kaye, Alicia Minshew, Rebecca Budig

Second Tier: Michael E. Knight, Ray MacDonnell, James Mitchell, Debbi Morgan, Darnell Williams

Third Tier: Ricky Paull Goldin, Beth Ehlers, Jacob Young, Bobbie Eakes, Eden Riegel, Tamara Braun, Walt Willey, Vincent Irizarry

Fourth Tier: Melissa Claire Egan, Aiden Turner, Chrishell Stause

Fifth Tier: JR Martinez, Brianne Moncrief, Cornelius Smith Jr, Denise Vasi, Shannon Kane, Daniel Kennedy

[DavidEvanSmith]

Okay, I'm going to try OLTL, but Cat I want to come back and address your feedback!

Top Tier: Erika Slezak, Robert S. Woods, Kassie DePaiva, Robin Strasser

Second Tier: Michael Easton, Susan Haskell, Hillary B. Smith, Trevor St. John

Third Tier: Brian Kerwin, Jerry verDorn, David Fumero, Bree Williamson, Kathy Brier, Melissa Archer, John-Paul Lavoisier

Fourth Tier: Farah Fath, BethAnn Bonner, Kristen Alderson, Scott Clifton, Jacqueline Hendy, Tika Sumpter, John Brotherton

Fifth Tier: Chris Stack, Mark Lawson, Brandon Buddy, Brittany Underwood, Jason Tam, Camila Banus, Austin Williams, Eddie Alderson

This one was harder to guess!

[miajere]

IA but would switch around HBS and TSJ...Haskell probably came in cheap.

[jcar03]

If we are going by what they make per episode - Laura Wright is probably second tier, Leslie Charleson may even be first but only has a one or two episode guarantee. Brandon Barash is a newcomer to daytime so he probably is fourth tier. Jason Cook would probably be third tier because of his history of daytime. This is just what they would make per episode not a possible total income on a yearly basis.

[rangethatrover]

Jcar, you are so right about this- Everything is per episode and then you have to factor in the guarantee.

Yearly just makes it easier. lol

If Leslie gets 6,000 per episode with a 1 episode per week guarantee- Its a huge difference with someone like with the guy who plays Sonny who probably gets 5,000 per episode with a 3 show per week guarantee....

These days at ABC, I would guess most contracts now have a 2 episode per week guarantee. 3 days a week is probably very hard to get unless you are totally at the top.

[Cashton]

I guess somebody has to try Y&R!

#1 - Braeden, Cooper, Bergman, Morrow

#2 - Case, St. John, Stafford, Leblanc, Walton, Chapman, E.Davidson

#3 - Goddard, Khalil, Rikert, Shackleford, Davidson, Miller, Hendrickson

#4 - All the rest!

[DaytimeFan]

I look at Y&R a bit differently, I've done it in Tiers and in each Tier I've done it in a rough order from most money per Tier to least.

First Tier: Braeden, Cooper, Bergman, Thomas-Scott

Second Tier: Walton, Morrow, Stafford, Case, LeBlanc, Davidson, Davidson, St. John

Third Tier: Chapman, Heinle, Bloom, Engen, Luckinbill, Goddard, Frantz, Bregman

Fourth Tier: Khalil, Sursock, Rikaart, O'Brien, Graziadei, Hendrickson, Linder, Weaver, McClure, Peeples, Shackleford, Miller, Schmidt

[rangethatrover]

Didn't Heather Tom leave Y&R over her guarantee being dropped? And Martha Byrne?

Even if it was being dropped from 3 days (I would pretty much bet she had a 3 day per week guarantee) to 2 days and I would figure she was making 3,000 per episode-

That is potentially a salary drop of over $150,000 per year! Pretty crazy.

I would assume the per week guarantee is the real contract point of concern..

[dm.]

Why do you think Bloom and Engen could have a higher salary than Rikaart or Graziadei?