Add CBS' "Everybody Loves
Raymond" co-star Patricia
Heaton to the list of TV stars
getting big pay raises this
year.
The Emmy Award-winning actress
is close to signing a deal with
producers HBO Independent
Productions and Worldwide Pants
that will pay her at least
$250,000 per episode for the
next two seasons, sources said
yesterday. Heaton, who plays
"Raymond" star Ray
Romano's wife, will more than
double her previous salary,
estimated to be between $75,000
and $90,000 an episode.
Under terms of the proposed
deal, Heaton also would earn a
retroactive raise for the last
two years and a salary increase
in the show's seventh season,
putting her total earnings at
between $20 million and $25
million over the next four
years.
"Everybody Loves
Raymond" will enter its
sixth season this fall. CBS
recently renewed the show
through the 2002-2003 season.
Heaton's expected pay raise
comes some six weeks after
Romano locked in a deal with
producers to earn $800,000 per
episode, or $35 million, along
with a retroactive raise
amounting to about $5million.
The comedian also is an
executive producer of the
series and will share in
syndication profits, estimated
at $300million during the first
five years.
Heaton and Romano are not the
only prime-time players to reap
six-figure salary increases
this summer for renewing their
contracts.
Earlier, NBC's "Frasier"
star Kelsey Grammer tied up a
$1.6 million-per-episode
paycheck with producers at
Paramount TV for consenting to
play Dr. Frasier Crane for
another two years. The deal
made Grammer prime-time TV's
top-paid star.
Likewise, ABC's Drew Carey
signed a new contract worth
$750,000 per episode earlier
this year, putting him on equal
footing with the cast members
of NBC's "Friends."
Heaton has been with the series
from its premiere season in
1996. She earned an Emmy Award
as outstanding actress in a
comedy series last year.
