We knew the A-list stars of Big Little Lies wouldn’t come cheap — but we couldn’t have predicted their salaries would be this huge.
Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, who play Celeste and Madeline on the HBO drama that has returned to Foxtel for its second season, are now among the highest paid TV actors in Hollywood.
The Oscar-winning actors reportedly negotiated $US1 million ($A1.4 million) pay cheques per episode for season 2 of BLL, three times more than what they earned in the first season.
RELATED: Big Little Lies season 2, episode 1 recap
Kidman earned $US350,000 while Witherspoon made $US250,000 per episode for season 1, which won eight Emmys and garnered huge critical and commercial acclaim.
This puts them among the top TV earners, joining Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki from The Big Bang Theory who each earned $US1 million per episode, as well as Elisabeth Moss from The Handmaid’s Tale and Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead who also make a mil per ep.
Witherspoon was reportedly the one to negotiate their inflated salaries, leveraging her deal with Apple for its new untitled morning show to secure the seven figure sum on BLL.
Apple, who have recently entered the lucrative scripted originals market, are said to be paying Witherspoon and her co-star Jennifer Aniston upward of $US1.25 million per episode for the 20-episode drama.
Kidman, who won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her role, is worth $US130 million, while Witherspoon is worth $US150 million.
Their salaries are a smidgen higher than cast newcomer and three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep who is said to have made $US800,000 per episode for season 2.
But the rest of the “Monterey five” don’t even come close to the top three, with Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern both said to have made $US500,000, while Zoe Kravitz’s reported salary was $US428,000.
When you consider the widespread popularity of Game of Thrones, its “Big Five” stars Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau each earned $US500,000 per episode for the final season.
Nothing to scoff at, but it’s a far cry from the stars of Big Little Lies.
The highest earning TV star of all time is Kelsey Grammer who made $US3.09 million per episode playing Frasier Crane in Frasier.
Ray Romano is close behind him after making $US3.03 million per episode on Everybody Loves Raymond.
Hollywood bad boy Charlie Sheen rounds out the top three TV earners ever, raking in an eye-watering $2.7 million per episode on Two and a Half Men before his contract was terminated, according to Vulture.
New episodes of Big Little Lies season 2 air on Mondays at 11am and 8.30pm
