After 7 seasons of starring on The Office as cranky yet hilarious Michael Scott, Steve Carell added to his $80 million net worth with many movie roles and also starred on Space Force and The Morning Show. Although the actor became famous for his time on a traditional sitcom that aired on NBC, it makes sense that he would star in a series made by Netflix and AppleTV+ given the impressive money that both streaming services pay actors.
Steve Carell's The Morning Show and Space Force characters couldn't be more different from each other, although they both make memorable impressions. Did the actor receive a higher salary for his AppleTV+ role or for starring on the Netflix series that he co-created with Greg Daniels?
What Was Steve Carell's The Morning Show And Space Force Salary?
While many of Steve Carell's comedies have been box office hits, from Date Night to Crazy Stupid Love, he has continued to act steadily in TV shows since quitting The Office. Instead of feeling like he'd rather focus on his film career and star in as many blockbusters as possible, he has seemed interested in playing many different characters, including Mark R. Naird on Space Force and Mitch Kessler on The Morning Show.
Steve Carell's Space Force salary was $1 million for each episode, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Since season 1 had 10 episodes and season 2 had 7, that was a lucrative job for the actor.
Variety reported that Carell was paid $750,000 for each episode of The Morning Show. While that is a bit of a pay difference, both are still really high salaries.
The actor received top billing in both Space Force and The Morning Show's casts, appearing in all 17 episodes of the former and 16 of the latter.
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While the AppleTV+ drama centers around the allegations surrounding Mitch, once he is suspended from his position, the show focuses on Witherspoon and Aniston's characters Bradley Jackson and Alex Levy as they become co-hosts. Mitch still has a fairly big role on the series, however, and in season 2, his character arc ends in a fairly shocking manner.
Does AppleTV+ Pay Actors More Than Netflix?
Based on what TV salaries have been made public, it seems that when it comes to whether AppleTV+ or Netflix pays its actors more, AppleTV+ seems to shell out the most money for each episode.
According to Hype Beast, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston were each paid over $1 million per episode of The Morning Show. It seems that AppleTV+ consistently pays actors in the $1 million per episode range as long as they are super famous. This makes sense given that the streaming service has hired so many huge stars, like Harrison Ford and Jason Segel on the 2023 series Shrinking.
According to Go Banking Rates, Rose Byrne was paid $750,000 for each episode of her AppleTV+ series Platonic, and Jason Sudeikis was paid $1 million for every episode of his hit comedy series Ted Lasso. It's fair to say that Sudeikis is a bigger name than Byrne, although both are talented and popular actors.
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However, it's definitely possible that when an actor stars on a Netflix series for a long time, they receive raises as time goes on, and those numbers can be massive. The young cast of Stranger Things will receive several million each for season 5, for instance.
When Netflix salaries are shared, the numbers are typically much lower than $1 million for each episode. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the main cast of On My Block was paid $20,000 for each season 1 and 2 episode, then $65,000 for each season 3 episode, and then $85,000 for each season 4 episode.
The Hollywood Reporter also shared that the cast of Never Have I Ever asked for more money for season 3. Jaren Lewison and Darren Barnet were paid $26,250 and $25,000 for each episode up until that point. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who played the main character Devi, was paid $21,000 for each season 1 episode. Netflix gave her a bonus of $100,000 and gave her a raise of $26,250 for each season 2 episode.
While Netflix has been around for a long time, with people receiving DVDs in the mail when the company was founded in 1997, AppleTV+ is a fairly new streaming service that began in 2019. The service attracted huge names right from the start and was seen as a place to see some high-quality series with famous stars, from Servant starring Rupert Grint to We Crashed starring Anne Hathaway and Jared Leto.
It's also true that Netflix pays actors higher salaries than traditional Hollywood studios, which is why they are of course so attracted to starring in projects that are released on the streaming service.
A Variety article from 2019 reported that Ryan Reynolds was paid $27 million for the action film Six Underground and Celebrity Net Worth shared that while Tom Cruise used to be paid $20 million a movie, he was paid $12-$14 million for Top Gun: Maverick.
What Steve Carell Said About Co-Creating Space Force
While Carell's The Morning Show character is incredibly unlikable, his role on Space Force is more pleasant to watch. Carell told Entertainment Tonight that he liked working with his The Morning Show co-stars: "That was a lot of fun to work on. That was a great group of people and I enjoyed that."
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In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Carell shared the fascinating way that the series came to be. He said that Netflix reached out to him and asked "Would you be interested in pursuing a show?" and gave him the title Space Force. Once he talked to Greg Daniels, he knew that they could work on it together.
Greg Daniels shared with The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 that even though fans will always think of him as the person who created The Office and Steve Carell will always be remembered for being Michael Scott, it was crucial to make Space Force a separate thing.
Daniels said, "To shift and change is really important for comedy. It seemed really important to Steve Carell and me in the beginning that Space Force not resemble The Office too much, so we attempted to be Stanley Kubrick-y in our cinematography. The downside when there’s so much attention on cinematography is that the cast is extraordinary and they didn’t get as much chance to improvise with each other."
While some critics didn't love Space Force, the talented cast including Jimmy O. Yang and Ben Schwartz made many fans laugh, and the story manages to be silly while saying something profound about politics.
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