Profit From Reruns: $8.62 So Far
Long before he was one of the biggest rappers in the world, Drake got his start as an actor. He played Jimmy Brooks, a basketball star in the Canadian teen drama “Degrassi” from 2001 to 2008.
The show ran for a total of fourteen seasons, and despite playing a popular character on a popular show, Drake can barely buy a meal with what he gets each month. He recently posted a picture of a residual check online, a grand total of $8.62. He probably doesn’t even bother cashing them, since he’s one of the wealthiest musicians in the world with a net worth in the hundreds of millions.
Michael J. Fox: Family Ties
Profit From Reruns: Nothing
It was the show that made Michael J. Fox famous, and a high-earner for NBC, but it didn't make him much money. The cast got a total of zero dollars from residuals – when was the last time you saw this show as a rerun? – and Michael J. Fox had to hitchhike to work near the end of the show because it paid so badly.
Interesting fact: Fox was almost fired from the show because they didn't think he was handsome enough to sell merchandise. His time on the "Back to the Future" series would prove them quite wrong.
Morena Baccarin: Gotham
Profit From Reruns: $10,000 a Year
Morena Baccarin plays Doctor Leslie Thompkins on "Gotham", who ends up married to Jim Gordon. The chemistry didn't stop there – Baccarin and Ben McKenzie (Gordon's actor) got married in 2017.
"Gotham" proved popular with Batman and superhero fans. Baccarin is a certified geek icon, having played Inara on "Firefly", Vanessa in "Deadpool", and she's also appeared in the shows "The Mentalist" and "Homeland". From reruns of "Gotham", she earns up to ten thousand dollars a year. The show just ended, and reruns are still going strong on top of being a Netflix favorite.
Mark Harmon: NCIS
Profit From Reruns: $60 Million So Far
As another part of the CSI family, NCIS is set around Navy investigator Special Agent Jethro Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon. The show first aired in 2003, and is still going! Harmon earns about an eighth of a million dollars per episode, and with hundreds of episodes bringing in that sweet rerun money.
Two more shows have spun off this long-runner, but the original NCIS is the seventh-longest primetime television series in the US. This means Harmon is set to make enough money to put all of his great-grandchildren through college. Right now the number is a mere sixty million.
David Schwimmer: Friends
Profit From Reruns: $20 Million a Year
In "Friends", Schwimmer played the archaeologist who thankfully ends up with Jennifer Aniston's character. Like Matt LeBlanc, he's getting twenty million dollars a year thanks to reruns and syndication.
His career is going strong thanks to roles in the animated "Madagascar" movies and the recent Netflix movie "The Laundromat", with Meryl Streep. His famous line “We were on a break!” is still popular online as a meme. Based on the popularity of the show on Netflix and other streaming services, all six of the principal actors will continue to earn big.