Profit From Reruns: $100,000 a Year
For nine seasons of “One Tree Hill”, Chad Michael Murray played Lucas Scott, the good son of the family and a certified teen heartthrob. The show was big among the teen crowd, showing the unique lives of the people – especially the high school students – of this town.
Featuring Sophia Bush before she rose to fame on “Chicago PD”, the drama is still found on the CW and has a 7.6 rating on IMDB. This brings CMM about a hundred thousand dollars a year. He doesn’t do much acting these days, but it doesn’t seem like he needs to.
Alan Alda: M*A*S*H
Profit From Reruns: $1 Million a Year
Alan Alda has been on screens pretty much nonstop since the sixties, mostly thanks to this darkly comedic show set during the Korean War. Though always presented with a comedic slant, the show maintained an emotional connection. It was set in the Korean War but aired during periods of the Vietnam War.
Alan Alda as “Hawkeye” ended up netting the actor $235,000 per episode – a pretty penny when the show ended after eleven seasons in 1983. Alda has done plenty more to bolster his career, and though he doesn't make as much as some stars, he still gets around a million dollars a year.
Ed O'Neill: Married with Children
Profit From Reruns: $10 Million a Year
For ten years, one dom-com reigned. Ed O'Neill and Katey Sagal welcomed us into their homes and showed us the absurdities of life. O'Neill in particular gained notoriety playing the hapless Al Bundy, though these days he's probably more well-known for his role as Jay in "Modern Family".
After eleven seasons, the show ended in 1997. Plenty of shows have tried to recapture the success of the show, but all have fallen short of the glory of Al's family. He earns something like ten million dollars a year from "Married with Children", though he'll probably end up earning more from "Modern Family".
Lisa Kudrow: Friends
Profit From Reruns: $20 Million a Year
Lisa Kudrow was part of the main cast of "Friends", and so she earns up to twenty million dollars a year because of it. Lisa felt a little uncomfortable playing her character, Phoebe, since she thought the character was acting dumb. However, she's happy with the residuals.
This actress has found plenty of other roles, including roles on "Cheers", "Mad About You", "BoJack Horseman", and more. She's also starred in "The Comeback".
Tim Daly, Wings
Profit From Reruns: $1,000 a Year
Daly's character in "Wings" is described as Seinfeld's stepchild. The show started in 1990 and went eight years, but unlike Seinfeld, Daly didn't have the rights to his popular show, which really reduced how much he's bringing in each year.
NBC holds the rights to the show, and despite it being one of the most popular shows of the nineties, Daly is only getting around a thousand dollars a year. And even most of that has been from the DVD sales – Daly says he's watched the series several times.