Tiffani Thiessen Makes Blunt Confession About ‘Saved by the Bell’ Earnings

Tiffani Thiessen just made a blunt confession about her Saved by the Bell pay and residuals 23 years after the show ended.

In an interview with SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio published on September 24, the actress who played Kelly Kapowski in the ’90s sitcom got real about how much she and her castmates made.

“We got nothing,” she admitted. “When we went primetime for one season, we got a little bit more. But yeah, I didn’t start making real money until I went to 90210.”

Unsurprisingly, the Saved by the Bell co-stars aren’t raking in dough on residuals from the show, either.

“I think it’s dried out,” she admitted, joking, “It’s like, negative now. It probably costs more to print the check than it does what’s on the check.”

Additionally, Thiessen said she and her Saved by the Bell co-stars didn’t have access to early screenings of episodes.

“We didn’t have any pull,” she shared. “We didn’t have pull on that show at all. We made nothing, and we just did our job. But we would watch it when it came out.”

During a 2019 interview on Watch What Happens Live, her Saved by the Bell costar, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, 52, echoed her sentiments about their pay. He conceded that they “made really bad deals.”

“Poor deals, back then,” he reiterated. “It is what it is. And you know, you move on, you learn. Great experience.”

Saved by the Bell aired for four seasons from 1989 to 1993. In addition to Thiessen and Gosselaar, the show starred Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley, Lark Voorhies, the late Dustin Diamond, and Dennis Haskins.

Meanwhile, Beverly Hills, 90210 ran for 10 seasons from 1990 to 2000, with Thiessen portraying Valerie Malone in Seasons 5 through 9.

Since then, Thiessen has appeared on shows like Alexa & Katie, White Collar, Deliciousness, Two Guys and a Girl, Fastlane, Good Morning, Miami, and more. She also reprised her role as Kelly in the Saved by the Bell revival series, which aired for two seasons from 2020 to 2021.