‘Modern Family’ Star Sofia Vergara’s $43 Million Salary Makes Her The Highest Paid TV Actress
Modern Family star Sofia Vergara has once again topped the list as the highest paid actress on television. Last year, the actress took home a salary of over $43 million, comfortably placing her as the highest paid star on TV. A large part of Vergara’s salary comes from her role as Gloria on Modern Family. However, a number of lucrative advertising deals have topped up her salary over the last year and once again made Vergara the highest-paid actress on the small screen.
According to Forbes, this is the fifth year in a row that the Colombian actress has topped their TV actress list. Whilst her salary for her role in the incredibly popular Modern Family has remained largely the same over the past few years, advertising deals have seen a 66 percent increase in her income. Vergara has managed to bring in advertising revenue from a number of different products, ranging from furniture to dandruff shampoo. So much so that Vergara is now considered to be more of a businesswoman than she is an actress.
Sofia Vergara isn’t on her own in terms of incredibly successful TV actresses, however. She’s closely followed on Forbes‘ top list by Kaley Cuoco, best known for her role as Penny in Big Bang Theory. In fact, Cuoco earns more per episode than Vergara, taking home $1 million for each episode of the CBS show.
According to the Telegraph, the news comes as small screen actors are quickly catching up with their big screen counterparts in terms of salaries. The last few years are largely regarded as the start of the golden age of television, with higher quality content and more variety than ever before. That’s largely helped by shows like Vergara’s Modern Family and Cuoco’s The Big Bang Theory, alongside standout dramas like Game of Thrones and TheWalking Dead, which are often compared to movies.
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Sofia Vergara isn’t the only Modern Family star to make Forbes‘ top list, however. She’s joined at number ten by Julie Bowen, who takes home $10 million for her role as Claire Dunphy in Modern Family. The full top ten list as compiled by Forbes is as follows:
- Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) – $43m
- Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) – $24.5m
- Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project) – $15m
- Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) – $14.5m
- Ellen Pompeo (Grey’s Anatomy) – $14.5m
- Kerry Washington (Scandal) – $13.5m
- Stana Katic (Castle) – $12m
- Priyanka Chopra (Quantico) – $11m
- Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) – $10.5m
- Julie Bowen (Modern Family)- $10m
The highest new entry on this year’s list is Priyanka Chopra, best known in the United States for her role as Alex Parrish on ABC’s Quantico. Before that appearance, Chopra was widely unheard of in the US. However, she’s been a well-known actress in her native country India for a good while. She’s now made the leap over to western television and is set to appear alongside Dwayne Johnson — the world’s highest paid actor — in Baywatch next year. For now, though, she’s the eighth-best-paid actress on US TV.
#AWANInews Priyanka Chopra among Forbes' highest paid TV actresseshttps://t.co/Ee2jo1rcmy pic.twitter.com/yHvgjEvffQ
— ??Astro AWANI?? (@501Awani) September 15, 2016
Television is undeniably changing. Whilst small screen actors were once paid considerably less than their big screen counterparts, that’s not always the case now. Stars like Modern Family‘s Sofia Vergara have proven that there’s big money to be made in TV, helped largely by greater choice and quality when it comes to small screen content.
Will Sofia Vergara be able to keep hold of the top spot in next year’s list?
[Featured Image by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images]
