12. Chrissy Metz
Project: This Is Us
Proposed Salary: $250,000 per episode*
Outcome: Agreed
There was a time when Chrissy Metz, the star of the hit television series This Is Us, just had eighty-one cents in her bank account. All of that has changed, and she is now one of the central characters on one of the most successful television shows in the United States.
Metz and other cast members Justin Hartley, Sterling K. Brown, Mandy Moore, and Milo Ventimiglia received a substantial pay rise before the show’s third season premiered. Given the popularity of This Is Us and that it was NBC’s decision, the stars’ wishes were met. Metz now earns $250,000 per episode, a significant increase from her previous salary of $40,000 per episode during the show’s first season.
12. Chrissy Metz
13. Daniel Dae Kim
Project: Hawaii Five-O
Proposed Salary: $200,000 per episode*
Outcome: Denied, Kim left
Daniel Dae Kim’s side of the salary disagreement between him and the Hawaii Five-0 producers was revealed in a recent interview published in the spring of 2021. Dae Kim left the show in 2017, much to the dismay of the audience. The exit was described as “incendiary” and “high profile” by TV Line, which broadcasted it.
Kim claimed that he and his co-star, Grace Park, had attempted to negotiate salary parity with the Five-0 network but had been unsuccessful. He requested that he be paid the same as his co-stars Scott Caan and Alex O’Loughlin, but the network turned down his request for equal pay. As a result, the two actors were fired from the CBS police drama. The former Lost actor claimed that the wage disparity was too “big” for him to ignore.
13. Daniel Dae Kim
