In August 2018, CBS announced that the twelfth series of The Big Bang Theory will be its last, with its final run concluding in 2019. Big Bang was one of the highest-rated shows on the network for a number of years, which allows the cast — including Kaley Cuoco — to negotiate some pretty lucrative deals, which eventually led to all of its lead stars earning $1 million per episode.
Cuoco, in particular, was named one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, taking home up to $35 million per year following season 8 when she earned a massive pay rise thanks to the stellar ratings Big Bang was accumulating week-to-week on CBS.
After the show concluded in 2019, Cuoco opened up and admitted that she “freaked out” after learning that the twelfth series would be its last — not only because she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her cast but also because she knew she’d never earn such a high-paying salary again.
Kaley Cuoco Freaked Out Over ‘Big Bang Theory’ Cancelation
During an interview with The One Show in March 2021, the blonde beauty admitted that she was quite nervous about leaving the show following the announcement that production would wrap for good after season 12.
Cuoco had played Penny Hofstadter since 2007 and starred in a whopping 279 episodes. She’d practically grown up with many of her cast members — some of which she considers her family — but one thing that was all the more shocking to her was knowing that she’d never make $1 million per episode on a sitcom again.
"When I started freaking out about the comparisons there would be or what my next project would be, I realized you can't compare anything to 'Big Bang,'" she gushed, continuing, "As its own entity, I'll never have that again.”
"I won't have that cast again, the money, the schedule, the 12 years... I mean, all of it was insane.”
Putting things into perspective, Cuoco earned $60,000 per episode from season 1 to season 3, according to Entertainment Weekly, and given that there were 63 episodes in total, the actress would have taken up close to $3.8 million.
While those numbers alone are impressive, things only went up for Cuoco and her cast as ratings soared past 15 million in viewership. The clan renegotiated their salary to a whopping $200,000 per episode from season 4, raising their total income to $4.8 million for the 24 episodes.
A $50,000 bump per episode was granted by CBS for the next three seasons, including a 0.25 percent of season 7’s backend and syndicated profits. But if fans honestly thought that it couldn’t get any better than this, wait till you hear about it.
Prior to commencing production on season 8, the cast renegotiated their contracts to $1 million per episode for the next three seasons. This meant that for 72 episodes in total, Cuoco took home an eye-watering $72 million, along with a larger percent of backend money and production deals.
According to Deadline, Cuoco would have made around $90 million when all other side deals with CBS were included.
For seasons 11 and 12, Cuoco and her lead stars took a pay cut to $900,000 in order for their co-stars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch to be granted a pay increase, which was definitely a nice gesture. This meant Cuoco made $43.2 million for the final two seasons.
Speaking of being convinced that people will always compare her future projects to Big Bang Theory, Cuoco continued telling The One Show.
"I was like, OK, if I can accept that nothing will compare to that, I can't control what other people are gonna say about me, but I knew my next project was gonna be for me and I was gonna leave that in its own place.”
While Big Bang Theory has since ended, Cuoco has remained pretty busy in Hollywood, having starred in the animated kids’ series Harley Quinn and The Flight Attendant on HBO Max, which made its premiere in 2020.
She’s currently filming her upcoming motion picture titled The Man from Toronto starring Woody Harrelson and Kevin Hart, so while she’s no longer getting those lucrative TV salaries, Cuoco is just as busy as when she was still working over at CBS.
It’s believed that the California native made almost $170 million from her 12-year stint on Big Bang Theory before taxes. Whether or not she’ll find another gem like BBT has yet to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: Cuoco made a lot of money from her lengthy time on one of the highest-rated sitcoms of all time.
Needless to say, Cuoco is doing just fine without the financial backing of collecting $1 million per episode on BBT.