Modern Family star Sofia Vergara is the world’s highest-paid TV actress on American television for the fifth year in a row, according to Forbes.
Forbes said Vergara’s role as Gloria in Modern Family, along with some lucrative product endorsements and licensing deals — which amount for the 66 per cent spike in her earnings over the previous year — helped her earn $43 million (before management fees and taxes) in the last 12 months.
These endorsements and licensing deals include CoverGirl and Head & Shoulders, which began in 2013, and is now one of her highest-paying and longest lasting endorsements.
“Acting was what she loved, but she knew she wasn’t going to make money on it, so her entrepreneurialism kicked in,” Luis Balaguer, Vergara’s manager and business partner for over 20 years said to Forbes. At the beginning of her career, her onscreen jobs were infrequent and paid poorly.
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The 44-year-old’s salary is almost $20 million more than runner-up Kaley Cuoco, who stars in The Big Bang Theory and earns $24.5 million.
Cuoco and Vergara tied on last year’s Forbes list, when both actresses earned $28.5 million.
Unlike the Colombian-American actress, Cuoco’s earnings are based almost solely from her pay as Penny on The Big Bang Theory, where she earns $1 million per episode. (A pretty penny, we’d say.)
Vergara makes more money than her male counterparts — Ty Burrell and Jesse Tyler Ferguson — in the ABC sitcom.
Like Vergara, Cuoco and her TV costars negotiated their salaries together, making the gender wage gap on TV smaller than on film.
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Mindy Kaling is the biggest climber on this year’s list, rising from eighth to third place with $15 million, between June 2015 and June 2016.
This year’s highest new entry on the Forbes list was Quantico’s Priyanka Chopra, coming in eighth with $11 million. The Bollywood star can be seen soon on the big screen alongside Dwayne Johnson, the world’s highest-paid actor, in the Baywatch movie.
Mariska Hargitay, who appears in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo rounded out the top five, while Scandal’s Kerry Washington, Stana Katic from Castle, The Good Wife’s Julianna Margulies, and Vergara’s Modern Family co-star Julie Bowen made this year’s top 10.
The highest-paid stars have made $208.5 million all together, which is $43.5 million more than last year’s total of $165 million.
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Here’s a the full list of TV’s highest-paid actresses:
1. Sofia Vergara — $43 million
2. Kaley Cuoco — $24.5 million
3. Mindy Kaling — $15 million
4. Ellen Pompeo — $14.5 million (tie)
5. Mariska Hargitay — $14.5 million (tie)
6. Kerry Washington — $13.5 million
7. Stana Katic — $12 million
8. Priyanka Chopra — $11 million
9. Julianna Margulies — $10.5 million
10. Julie Bowen — $10 million
11. Pauley Perrette — $9.5 million
12. Patricia Heaton — $8.5 million
13. Emily Deschanel — $7.5 million (tie)
14. Julia Louis-Dreyfus — $7.5 million (tie)
15. Zooey Deschanel — $7 million
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