Keith Ó Gealbháin

Matt LeBlanc revealed that Warner Bros. made a $4 million per episode Friends rerun deal in 1996 that only required FOUR of the six stars to stay When the cast found out, they decided to negotiate together, and eventually all six secured $1,000,000 each per episode. At the time, the actors were earning between $20,000 and $40,000 per episode, while Warner Bros. had already made a fortune selling the rights to air Friends reruns but according to LeBlanc, there was a condition in the deal that only required four of the original six actors to remain on the show. That meant Warner Bros. could potentially replace two of them without losing its massive rerun deal LeBlanc recalled that the cast started wondering which two actors the studio considered expendable Rather than negotiating separately, all six agreed to stick together and demand equal pay Even David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston, who were making more than the others, agreed to the arrangement. Their first collective negotiations in 1996 brought their salaries to around $75,000 each per episode, and they continued negotiating together over the following years By 2002, every member of the Friends cast was earning $1 MILLION per episode, plus a share of the show's rerun profits Warner Bros. was now paying all six actors a combined $6 million for every new episode!