Sophia Bush's One Tree Hill Salary Will Actually Shock You: ‘The Difference In Pay Scale Was Wild’
by Perez Hilton · Perez HiltonSophia Bush‘s wage gap on One Tree Hill was INSANE!
During an episode of the Networth and Chill With Your Rich BFF podcast that was recorded Wednesday, the beloved Brooke Davis portrayer opened up about how much she made during the show. Host Vivian Tu brought up the topic, asking her about her salary, to which she responded:
“I’m really gonna bum you out. Once I paid 10 percent to my managers, 10 percent to my agents, five percent to my lawyers, a publicist fee, my taxes, and the $3,000-a-month that my two-bedroom apartment in Wilmington cost me. I was taking home about $3,000 per episode.”
Only $3k per episode?! For a MAIN CHARACTER?! That’s wild!
The first season had 22 episodes, so that’s only $66,000 annual salary. Granted, that’s take-home pay… But it doesn’t sound like your idea of a TV star salary, right? According to Indeed, some current jobs where you might make about that much? Executive chauffeur, entry-level FBI agent, airport police officer. Where’s that sexy TV money??
To put that in perspective, Blake Lively reportedly made $60,000 per episode of Gossip Girl. And that’s not even close to the salaries on HUGE hit shows! After several years on Grey’s Anatomy, Ellen Pompeo negotiated for $575,000 per epi. And the Friends cast famously made $1 million each by the end. That’s what we imagine when we think about stars on a TV show, right?
So… why did Sophia make so little? Well, she was making less than everyone else on the show apparently! This was largely due to her having no prior acting credits. Unlike her female co-stars Hilarie Burton and Bethany Joy Lenz, who came from backgrounds on MTV and soap operas, this was her first real role. So they gave her an entry salary. A much, much lower one than everyone else! She lamented:
“The difference in pay scale was wild.”
But surely she made more when the show became a hit, right? Not for a long time! Sadly, Sophia revealed she couldn’t even earn a raise due to her contract:
“When you sign a TV contract, you sign a contract for six years. They can cancel your show at any time, but you can’t leave or ask for a raise because you’re on a six-year deal.”
In fact, she alleges the cast was actively discouraged from asking for renegotiations, too! She claimed she was always told the show was “on the verge of getting cancelled” so she wouldn’t ask for a renegotiation. Several years on the bubble, eh? Hmm…
Ahead of Season 4, her team was able to renegotiate, though. Finally, after some argument, what seemed to do the trick was them saying this:
“Listen, we know none of the girls are making what the boys are making. But you cannot pay her a third of what the woman making the least amount of money on the show is making.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa… WHAT?!?
That’s right, she was making way, way less than the other girls. But we bet y’all got that really effed up part she threw in there, right? They said “we know none of the girls are making what the boys are making.” Like, the gender pay gap was just a given. UGH!
But still… Her raise only bumped her up to being the “second-lowest paid woman in the cast,” making “under 20 percent of what my male costar was making on the show”. On top of all this, she also shared her woes about signing contracts so many years ago before streaming services existed — because now she doesn’t get residuals from the platforms that have the show either!
“Look, it is what it is. That’s the breaks. Still a champagne problem … It’s always a hustle. It took me 20 years in this industry, doing 15 straight years of network TV without taking a year off … literally, year 20 was the first time I got paid equally to my male costar.”
WAY too long! Watch for yourself starting around the 8:11 timestamp (below):
We’re glad Sophia is so outspoken about this! It’s important for people to understand not everyone they see on TV is rich! We mean… that’s how much the STAR of One Tree Hill was making! Imagine how much someone with a guest spot, a few lines here and there, got? Worth thinking about.
Thoughts, Perezcious readers?