Neil Patrick Harris Gives Us Full Details on Salary Earned During How I Met Your Mother

Barney Stinson is a well known character and Neil was a great actor for that role.

Daphnie

• Published in Film & TV
• September 17, 2024

Whether you watched the infamous How I Met Your Mother television series or not, you probably have seen this character or some snippets of it here and there. If you did watch the show then you're most definitely going to love hearing about this.

It's usually a huge secret how much actors get paid to play certain roles and there's always so much talk about the larger role and what they really get paid to play it. Neil Patrick Harris will actually be diving into his role in this infamous show and what exactly he got paid to play in it.

Being an actor can actually be pretty tough because a lot of the time the roles are not as common and it can take a lot of time before landing a large role. That's why these roles are so important to actors and they can really change their lives and careers.

Many actors can land one big role and be set for a while, but they may go long periods of time without another role. These actors who get paid thousands for one role often have to stretch that money over a period of time until they can land their next role.

So if you're interested in hearing what Neil Patrick Harris was paid to play his popular role, then keep on reading as we dive into what he told us about his salary on How I Met Your Mother.

How I Met Your Mother was a very popular show and everyone did great on it.

Neil Patrick Harris is one of the top stars on this sitcom and he's a great example of showing just how much actors can get paid. The actor, who is now 51 years old, played Barney Stinson throughout all nine seasons of the show.

This ended up being a pretty lucrative role for Harris because of the popularity of the show. Stern was asked if he was pleased with his earnings on the show to which he responded "Are you kidding? Yes I was happy with that."

By the end of the season, Harris stated that he was making $250,000 per week to be acting on the show as one of the lead roles. He stated that although this seemed quite steep compared to other industries, that this actually wasn't a lot for a lead role.

We love seeing this face and are happy to hear how much he made.

It's important to remember that as seasons went on, that the main cast likely got bonuses or royalties which would have increased Harris' total earnings during that time. However, from our perspective that's an insane amount of money because most people don't even make that in a year, much less one week.

"We'd gotten eight seasons out of it... this was an extra season, a fantastic final lap and why shouldn't we be reaping the benefits of that," Harris said. 

"And I feel like everyone has proven their worth on the show, everyone is providing and deserves to get paid well."

He continued to state that this was low for what leads usually get especially for a show that was so popular. In comparison, the cast of The Big Bang Theory and Friends both received about $1 million per episode in their last season.

No matter how you look at it, Harris seems happy with his pay even if it wasn't as much as some other actors got paid in lead roles. It still seems like he's happy with it and he gained a successful career out of his lead role in How I Met Your Mother.

It's interesting to see what actors are getting paid and really how it compares to a regular person's salary.

Daphnie