Raking in the big bucks. Jim Parsons tops this year’s annual Forbes list for TV’s highest-paid actors, with a whopping $25.5 million, the site announced on Thursday, September 22.
Parsons’ Big Bang Theory costars Johnny Galecki came in second with $24 million, and Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar locked in spots at third and fourth, with $22.5 million and $22 million, respectively.
Parsons, 43, topped the list last year with $29 million, and Galecki, 41, took home $27 million to rank No. 2.
Mark Harmon, the star of CBS’s drama NCIS, came in fifth with $20 million.
Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco placed second on Forbes’ list of top-earning TV actresses, released last week, with $24.5 million. The top spot was reserved for Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara, who took home $43 million this last year.
All of the earnings were tracked between June 1, 2015, and June 1, 2016.
According to Forbes, though both Helberg and Nayyar take home slightly lower per-episode salaries than do Parsons and Galecki, their side projects — such as Nayyar’s bestselling book, Yes, My Accent Is Real, and Helberg’s role in Florence Foster Jenkins — are what secured their top-earning spots.
