‘Baywatch’ actors complain they made $3,500 while ‘Friends’ cast was earning $1 million per episode
The “Baywatch” cast didn’t get paid the big bucks despite the show’s worldwide success.
The cast members from the hit ’90s series talked about their low salaries in the new four-part docuseries, “After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun.”
“Back then, what they were offering everyone was like $3,500 a show,” said Nicole Eggert, who played Summer Quinn on the show.
Eggert added: “‘Friends’ at that point I think they were each making $1 million an episode.”
“Baywatch” premiered on NBC in 1989, but it was canceled after only one season. However, the show’s creators and star David Hasselhoff revived the show in syndication in 1991, leading to it becoming the most popular show on-air at the time.
The series ran for 10 more seasons before concluding in 2001.
Meanwhile, “Friends” was an immediate hit when it debuted on NBC in 1994. It went into syndication in 1998.
By Season 8, which aired from 2001 to 2002, the cast of the sitcom — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry — successfully negotiated their contracts so that they were making $1 million per episode by Season 8.
The show wrapped after 10 seasons in 2004.
The stars on “Baywatch” did not enjoy the financial success that the “Friends” cast did, as pointed out in the new docuseries.
“I actually remember freaking out seeing my first paycheck after the taxes were taken out,” said Erika Eleniak, who played Shauni McClain on the first two seasons of “Baywatch.”
“It was like, ‘What? What just happened? How am I honestly going to live on this money?'” she added.
Billy Warlock, who played Eddie Kramer, said that “there’s not one rich actor on ‘Baywatch.'”
“And that’s kind of strange,” he continued, “because the wealth is always shared when you’re on a hit TV show.”
The 63-year-old actor claimed that “everybody was disposable” on the show.
“And if you didn’t fit into their brand and the price they were paying you, you were gone,” he added.
ABC News journalist Chris Connelly also weighed in on the discourse around the “Baywatch” cast’s paychecks.
“Baywatch made a lot of money — just not for the actors,” he noted. “They treated being on ‘Baywatch’ like you were a college athlete. ‘Oh, you’ll make your money down the road. You’ll make your money because you became famous on ‘Baywatch.'”
Of the entire “Baywatch” cast, Pamela Anderson has the highest net worth at $20 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
By comparison, Aniston is worth $320 million, the most of anyone from “Friends.”
Cox is second with a net worth of $150. Kudrow is worth $130 million, Schwimmer is worth $120 million and LeBlanc is worth $85 million.
Perry was worth around $120 million when he died at age 54 in October 2023.
In his 2022 memoir, Perry looked back on how the “Friends” cast made history in 2002 by scoring the first-ever $1 million per episode paycheck each. He said it was Schwimmer’s idea to negotiate a higher pay for all six cast members.
“It was a decision that proved to be extremely lucrative down the line,” Perry wrote. “David had certainly been in a position to go for the most money, and he didn’t. By season eight, we were making a million dollars per episode; by season ten we were making even more. We were making $1,100,040 an episode, and we were asking to do fewer episodes.”
In contrast, Anderson told Variety last year how she barely made money for playing C.J. Parker on “Baywatch,” especially compared to Hasselhoff, who was also a producer on. the series.
“The producers of ‘Baywatch’ made a fortune,” she said. “I just didn’t have the representation back then. Or the know-how. You don’t realize when you’re doing a TV show that it’s going to be that popular, so you kind of sign your life away.”
Her son, 26-year-old Brandon Thomas Lee, said that his famous mom was “definitely being taken advantage of” when she was on the show.
