Here's How Much The Cast Of 'This Is Us' Makes Per Episode

This Is Us returns to NBC this week for the third season. The Pearsons have quickly become an iconic family in the TV pantheon, with promises this season the family will get bigger. Actors like Milo Ventimiglia and Sterling K. Brown have become household names, Mandy Moore officially has landed a role as an adult rivaling her child-star levels fame. With fame comes fortune, right? Well, not always. How much does the This Is Us cast make? The good news is their numbers just went up.

One of the biggest lessons any broadcast series can take to heart is unionizing within a cast works. The Friends cast was the model for this tactic, with the six of them negotiating as a single unit until they became the highest-paid names on TV ever for the time period. The actors who play the five main Pearsons are following suit, with excellent results.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cast did not start out making the same amount, with each having negotiated pay commiserate to their experience prior to the series, leaving some earning as little as $40,000 per episode, while others made $115,000. But now, Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore (who play parents Jack and Rebecca) along with adult triplets Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, and Justin Hartley (Randall, Kate, and Kevin) have finally concluded negotiation for the now-filming Season 3, and the result is a payday for all of them.

The Hollywood Reporter had the exclusive details:

The five central cast members from NBC's This Is Us have renegotiated their contracts with producer 20th Century Fox Television and scored significant pay raises for the upcoming third season. Stars Milo Ventimiglia (Jack), Mandy Moore (Rebecca), Sterling K. Brown (Randall), Chrissy Metz (Kate) and Justin Hartley (Kevin) will see their per-episode salary jump to $250,000, once their respective signing bonuses are factored in, according to sources. Season three, which returns Tuesday, will again consist of 18 episodes.

For those trying to figure out the annual salary, $250,000 at 18 episodes means they will each walk away with $4.5 million per season going forward.

The article notes there is no word if the non-Pearson adults scored a pay raise, including Susan Kelechi Watson (Randall's wife, Beth) and Chris Sullivan (Kate's husband, Toby).

Even though $250,000 per episode sounds like a sweet deal, the This Is Us cast has a long way to go before they reach the top tiers of television salaries. The entire cast of The Big Bang Theory, for instance, also negotiates as a unit. All seven cast members earn $900,000 each per episode on a 24 installment order, netting them in the $20 million a season range. If This Is Us keeps getting bigger, the next round the Pearsons will probably be able to pull their spouses into the fold and maybe even aim to double their current figure.

Meanwhile, Season 3 premieres on NBC on Sept. 25, 2018 at 9 p.m. ET and will run every Tuesday through Thanksgiving.