How Much It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Paid Rob McElhenney During Season 1

Although the cast of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" are undeniably doing well for themselves these days, when they started their sitcom they were still in hustle mode. Originally working with just one camera that they could only afford thanks to Glenn Howerton's "That '80s Show" paychecks, that first season of "Always Sunny" had a budget of $100 and a dream. 

Okay, it wasn't really $100, but it was still low. The production budget was so low, in fact, that Rob McElhenney couldn't yet afford to leave his job as a waiter. He was being paid $7,500 an episode; not bad by regular-people standards, but it's still much lower than what you'd expect a lead actor and showrunner to make. Add on the fact that there was only seven episodes in that first season, and then consider the lack of job stability involved — they had no way of knowing if they'd make it to season 2 — and it makes sense McElhenney would want to keep his day job just to be safe. 

It was all worth it as far as McElhenney's concerned. As he explained in a recent interview with Variety:

"That was our chance, and we're very proud of those episodes. It was certainly unlike anything else on TV. We knew we were betting on ourselves. John was very up front with us and saying, 'We're taking a risk on you. You came in and said you want to be the showrunner. You're not even the head waiter at a restaurant! But I believe in you.' We'll give you meaningful ownership of the show. We won't pay you very much for quite a long time, and we'll see if we can gain an audience.' And it worked out pretty well!"

The show's second season both had a higher episode count and higher viewer ratings, thanks in part to the addition of Danny DeVito's Frank Reynolds. Nearly twenty years later, the show's famous for being one of the longest-running live-action sitcoms in American TV history, and for being one of the few long-running shows to stay consistent in quality even in its later seasons. Rob McElhenney no longer needs a waiter gig as a safety net, that's for sure. 

Although $7,500 an episode seems low for a TV gig, it turns out that salaries in this range are pretty common. Some fans of "Saturday Night Live," for instance, were surprised when Pete Davidson mentioned in a recent interview that "SNL" cast members only make "like three grand an episode." At about 20 episodes a season that comes out to a $60,000 salary; certainly livable, but not enough to live that Don Draper lifestyle everyone assumes actors have. 

Granted, it's possible that Davidson was exaggerating how low his initial paycheck was, since other outlets report that first-year cast members make around $6-7k an episode. They also tend to get a salary bump for every season they return to the show. (Which is part of why Kenan Thompson is likely doing very well for himself today as cast member who's been around for 20+ seasons.) Take all that and add on the Verizon/T-Mobile commercial money most of them seem to be raking in, and "SNL" still seems like a comfy gig overall.

The discussion around TV salaries gained a lot of attention throughout the 2023 writers' strikes, where actors and writers from hit shows like "Orange is the New Black" and "The Bear" talked about the surprisingly small payments they've received from their popular work. Not only are modern TV actors not paid as much as you'd think, but thanks to the prominence of streaming services over traditional network/cable TV, they're no longer raking in as many residuals checks either. 

As low-budget and low-pay as "Always Sunny" was throughout its early years, the fact that it reached syndication status as early as 2011 put its cast and crew in a great place long-term. Making "Always Sunny" may have been a struggle at first, but the crew has still had it pretty good by modern TV production standards.