How Much Residuals Do TV Stars Make? These Stars’ Candid Revelations May Shock You
Residual payments from older TV shows were a point of contention during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, and they’re back in the headlines now after Tiffani Thiessen, Mario Lopez, and David Henrie recently discussed their scant earnings from their hit series.
Thiessen said on SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio her residuals from Saved by the Bell are practically negative. “It probably costs more to print the check than it does what’s on the check,” she surmised.
Lopez, another Saved by the Bell alum, corroborated his former costar’s account a month later. “She wasn’t lying, I’ll tell you that!” he told The Daily Mail. “’I have nothing but pleasant memories and a great experience, but… we were kids and it wasn’t the best deal.”
More recently, Henrie said on the Good Guys podcast he gets “maybe a little bit here and there, but nothing really” from his time on Wizards of Waverly Place.
And the following TV actors have all shared details on residual paychecks below $10… and sometimes below 10 cents.
Drake
Before he was a music superstar, the rapper born Aubrey Drake Graham was a star of Degrassi: The Next Generation. And in July 2017, he shared an Instagram photo of a check for $8.25. “Degrassi money still coming in don’t sleeeeeeeep…” he wrote in the caption. (Even so, that’s still over a hundred times the check amounts some of these other are receiving.)
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Mandy Moore
In July 2023, as she and other SAG-AFTRA members went on strike, Moore told The Hollywood Reporter she had received checks ranging from $0.01 to $0.81 from This Is Us streaming on Hulu. “We’re in incredibly fortunate positions as working actors having been on shows that found tremendous success in one way or another,” she added, “but many actors in our position for years before us were able to live off of residuals or at least pay their bills.”
Jana Schmieding
Schmieding’s recurring role as Bev on Reservation Dogs pays her just pennies, as she revealed in a now-offline X post that same month, according to BuzzFeed. “Here’s a peek behind the IHS counter at what part of my residuals looks like for acting on a show that I love,” she wrote. “I pull in $0.03 each quarter for unlimited worldwide streams on FX/Hulu/Disney.”
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Robert Carradine
This late Lizzie McGuire alum posted an Instagram photo of his $0.00 residuals check from Disney Worldwide in July 2023 as the SAG-AFTRA walkout continued. “Why we’re striking,” he captioned the pic.
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Constance Marie
Despite acting on Switched at Birth for more than 100 episodes, Marie showed TikTok followers that July how she was getting residual payments as low as $0.03. “They’re still making money, but I cannot make a living and pay my rent and pay my insurance off of these residuals,” she explained.
@goconstance #greenscreen Sadly, the negotiations with #AMPTP have not gone well. They are unwilling to adjust our antiquated contracts to the new business model of streaming. Here is an example of how my show ##SwitchedAtBirthcontinues to make money for the studio, but for me? Not so much! If they’re making money off my likeness, my work, so should! WE ARE NOW ON STRIKE! ##FairIsFair##ActorsStrike##ActorLife##Actor@@SAG-AFTRA##payafairwage ♬ original sound – Constance Marie
Kamil McFadden
McFadden (pictured below at far left), who starred in more than six dozen K.C. Undercover episodes, also spoke out during that strike, sharing a video of his recent residual payments, including some negative amounts. “Y’all ever seen negative amounts on your residuals?” he wrote. “The full video is almost two minutes long, and I’m only netting $2.77. The math ain’t mathing.”
Eric McCandless/Disney Channel
Billy Porter
“I’m not trying to get any sympathy. This is the truth of it: My residual checks were six cents,” the Pose actor told the PA news agency during the strike, per The Standard. “I’m still an artist, and artists are still freelance workers. So Pose has been over now since 2021. I don’t get no more money from that.”
Macall Polay/FX
Jodie Sweetin
“I got a one-cent check the other day,” this Full House star said on the podcast The McBride Rewind in April 2026. “No, there’s no syndication anymore because it’s all in streaming. Who gets paid for that? Nobody gets paid for that.”
Andrew Keegan
During his May 2026 interview on The McBride Rewind, this 7th Heaven alum revealed he’s also in the one-cent check club. “I think it’s really funny, ’cause I’ll get — different shows, obviously — but I’ll get one-cent checks. It costs, like, 40 cents to send in the mail!”
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Eve Plumb
In April 2026, Plum told PauseRewind (per KOMO News) that she and her cast mates from The Brady Bunch just don’t get residuals. “No matter how many times I say it, people still have assumptions,” she added. “So, I just say it again and again.”
Ted McGinley
This veteran of TV shows like Happy Days, The Love Boat, and Married… With Children shared with Page Six in May 2026 that he has a “whole stack” of $0.01 residual checks. Those he doesn’t cash, but he laughingly admitted he would cash $2 checks.
Jennifer Tedmori
In a July 2026 video, Tedmori opened a stack of residual checks from her time acting in nearly a dozen episodes of Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide. The checks ranged from $1.11 on the high end to $0.02 on the low, per AL.com. “I know, hard times [and the] economy is s***, but like two cents?” she said. “Keep it. Just f***ing keep it. I don’t want it.”
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