Quick answer: Celebrity Net Worth estimates Ted Danson at about $80 million. Check the stamp before quoting it: that profile was last modified 12 November 2024, so it is not a 2026 valuation. Forbes publishes no Ted Danson profile — the URL returns a 404 — so there is no Forbes figure for him to cite.
His Cheers pay, unusually for this subject, is backed by contemporaneous trade reporting rather than compiler guesswork. The Los Angeles Times reported in February 1991 that Danson made $450,000 per episode, and Variety put it at “more than $450,000 per episode, which amounts to almost $12 million for the year’s 26 episodes.” That is real 1990s money, named and dated.
What it is not is his net worth, and the clearest proof of that comes from CNW itself: the same profile that estimates $80 million also runs a career-earnings table whose bottom line reads $4.5 million. Both numbers are on one page. Neither is a lie. They are measuring completely different things, and one of them is broken.
For the same distinction on another long television career, see Jay Leno’s net worth and Jamie Farr’s net worth. For a near-identical broken compiler table, see Sigourney Weaver’s net worth.
Quick facts
| Item | Named record |
|---|---|
| Celebrity Net Worth | About $80 million (profile last modified 12 November 2024) |
| Forbes | No profile. forbes.com/profile/ted-danson/ returns 404 |
| CNW “Total Earnings” row | $4.5 million — a film fee added to a single episode’s rate. Not a career total |
| Cheers peak pay | $450,000 per episode (LA Times, Feb 1991); “almost $12 million” for 26 episodes (Variety, 1992) |
| CSI pay | $250,000 per episode across 86 episodes, 2011–2015 (CNW) — about $21.5 million for the run |
| Divorce settlement | $2 million for every year of the marriage to Casey Coates, $30 million total (CNW) |
| Emmy Awards | Two wins (1990, 1993), from 18 nominations — 11 of them one per Cheers season |
| Golden Globes | Three wins, plus the Carol Burnett Award in 2025 |
| Current work | A Man on the Inside (Netflix); season two premiered 20 November 2025 |
The $4.5 million table, and the arithmetic that breaks it
Celebrity Net Worth publishes a career-earnings breakdown on Danson’s profile. In full, it has two rows.
| Credit | CNW figure |
|---|---|
| Getting Even with Dad | $4 million |
| Cheers | $450 thousand per episode |
| CNW “Total Earnings” | $4.5 million |
Look at what happened there. A one-off film fee of $4 million was added to one episode’s rate of $450,000, giving $4,450,000, and the sum was labelled “Total Earnings.” The two rows are not the same kind of quantity. One is a payment; the other is a price per unit. Adding them is like adding the cost of a car to the price of a litre of petrol and calling it your annual motoring budget.
The scale of the error is easy to show using nothing but CNW’s own prose. The same profile says Danson earned about $12 million per season for seasons 9, 10 and 11 of Cheers — roughly $36 million — and that he was paid $250,000 per episode across 86 episodes of CSI, which is about $21.5 million. That is around $57 million from two jobs, described a few paragraphs above a “total earnings” figure of $4.5 million.
While we are in that paragraph, one more correction. CNW describes those 86 CSI episodes as “around $21 million in per-season earnings.” It is not per season. Eighty-six episodes at $250,000 is the total across the whole 2011–2015 run, about four seasons’ worth. The figure is right and the unit is wrong.
None of this makes the $80 million estimate wrong. It makes the $4.5 million row useless as a measure of what Danson has earned, and it is a good reminder that a compiler’s tables and its headline can be assembled with very different levels of care.
What Cheers actually paid, according to the trades at the time
Three contemporaneous reports, and they do not agree on the unit. This page prints all three rather than picking the tidiest.
| Source | Date | What it said |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Times | 7 February 1991 | “Star Ted Danson, for example, makes $450,000 per episode.” Stated flatly, per episode. |
| Variety | 1992 | “Reportedly is paid more than $450,000 per episode, which amounts to almost $12 million for the year’s 26 episodes.” |
| Los Angeles Times | 9 December 1992 | “At least $250,000 a week… other concessions that have raised the speculated amount to as much as $450,000 a week.” |
A network sitcom shoots roughly an episode a week, so per-week and per-episode land in a similar place in practice — but they are not the same claim, and the December 1992 piece explicitly treats $450,000 as the top of a speculated range rather than a confirmed rate. The honest summary is that Danson was the highest-paid actor on television in the final Cheers seasons at a reported figure around $450,000 per episode, that Variety’s arithmetic of almost $12 million a year is consistent with it, and that the precise unit was never nailed down publicly.
The surrounding economics are worth keeping because they explain the number. The 1991 LA Times piece reports that Cheers cost Paramount $2.2 million per episode to produce, principally because of the cast’s salaries, and that Paramount opened renewal talks asking $120 million. Variety reports NBC paying about $2.25 million per episode. Danson’s fee was a visible fraction of a show whose economics were straining the network that carried it.
The $30 million that went out
Net-worth pages love inflows and forget outflows. CNW records that Danson’s divorce from his second wife, the producer Casey Coates, was one of the most expensive celebrity divorces ever: under the settlement he paid her $2 million for every year they had been together, $30 million in total. CNW puts that near $50 million in today’s money and notes that his affair with Whoopi Goldberg contributed to the breakdown of the marriage.
Whatever else is true of the $80 million estimate, it sits on the far side of a nine-figure-adjacent transfer out. Any page that walks you through Cheers paychecks and syndication without mentioning that settlement is telling you half the story.
Property, with the actual numbers
Every figure here is Celebrity Net Worth’s, and they are specific. A nine-acre property in Ojai, California, bought through a trust in 2005 for $4.5 million and sold in June 2019 for $8.75 million. A second Ojai home bought in 2017 for $2.4 million. A Santa Monica house bought in 2014 for $3.5 million, with the property next door added in January 2019 for $5.2 million to form a single private compound. They also hold a small cottage in Nashville and a six-acre multi-residence spread on Martha’s Vineyard.
Two cautions. These are purchase and sale prices, not current equity, and CNW describes the portfolio as jointly owned with his wife — so they are not a separate pile to stack on top of the $80 million. And no, property does not “appreciate every single year.” The Ojai sale nearly doubled over fourteen years; that is a good outcome, not a law of nature.
Mary Steenburgen, and why $80 million plus $80 million is not $160 million
CNW also estimates Mary Steenburgen at $80 million, on a profile modified 17 April 2025. Danson and Steenburgen have been married since 1995. It is tempting to conclude the household is worth $160 million. Do not.
CNW’s own real-estate text on Danson’s profile begins “Together, they own a number of properties around the country.” Compilers routinely assign shared marital assets to both spouses’ individual pages, because a profile is built per person, not per household. When the same house appears on two profiles, adding the profiles counts the house twice. The two $80 million figures are best read as overlapping estimates of one shared financial life, not as two independent fortunes — and nobody outside the marriage knows how the assets are actually titled.
Is he the richest Cheers cast member?
Not clearly, and the widely repeated claim that he is does not survive a look at the source. CNW puts Kelsey Grammer — Frasier Crane on Cheers before eleven years of Frasier — at $80 million as well, on a profile modified 24 June 2026, some nineteen months fresher than Danson’s. On the only compiler that covers both, it is a tie, and the more recently reviewed of the two figures is Grammer’s.
The more striking number is the spread. Across the Cheers principals, CNW’s estimates run from $3 million for Shelley Long, who played Diane Chambers for five seasons, up to the $80 million shared by Danson and Grammer. One hit show, one cast, and a range of more than twenty-five to one. Whatever explains that, it is not how funny anybody was.
The residuals question, answered honestly
Cheers ran 11 seasons, ended on 30 May 1993 with a finale CNW says drew 80 million viewers, and has been in syndication ever since. As the lead of a show like that, Danson is in the category of performer who continues to receive residual and participation payments, and it would be odd if he did not.
But no named source quantifies them. A figure of “around $5 million per year” circulates via secondary entertainment sites that name no underlying source for it, and no studio filing, trade report or compiler puts a number on his Cheers residuals. So this page tells you the mechanism exists and declines to invent the amount. Claims that he “receives huge checks every single time the reruns play” are describing a payment structure nobody has published.
Awards, and the record he actually holds
Per the Television Academy, Danson has 18 Emmy nominations across all categories and two wins, both for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series as Sam Malone, in 1990 and 1993; eleven of those nominations came one for every single season of Cheers. Within the comedy lead actor category alone he holds the record for the most nominations ever, at fourteen — a record he spent years sharing at eleven with Alan Alda and, fittingly, Kelsey Grammer.
He has won three Golden Globes: two for Cheers and one for the television film Something About Amelia. We are giving counts and not ceremony years here, because reputable sources disagree on the years — an artefact of awards being handed out in the year after the work they honour — and a contested date adds nothing to the point.
CNW’s November 2024 stamp means its awards summary predates the most recent chapter entirely. In 2025 the Golden Globes gave Danson the Carol Burnett Award, their highest television honour, in the same year he was nominated for best actor in a comedy series — his first Globe nomination since Damages in 2007. Emmy, SAG and Critics Choice nominations for the same role followed across 2025 and 2026.
What he is doing now
Danson stars as Charles Nieuwendyk in A Man on the Inside, created by Mike Schur — his Good Place collaborator — and adapted from the Oscar-nominated Chilean documentary The Mole Agent. Season one arrived on Netflix on 21 November 2024, topped the platform’s English-language television chart and stayed in the top ten for five weeks. It was renewed within a month.
All eight episodes of season two premiered on 20 November 2025, moving to an anthology structure that sends Charles undercover at a liberal arts college. Variety confirmed that Mary Steenburgen joined the season in a lead role as a music teacher, opposite her husband of thirty years. The two first played a married couple in Cross Creek in 1983, twelve years before they married. No salary has been disclosed for either season, and this page does not guess at one.
How we research this page
Celebrity Net Worth’s Danson profile for the $80 million estimate, the CSI rate, the divorce settlement and the property figures — dated to its 12 November 2024 stamp throughout, and audited rather than repeated where its own arithmetic fails. The Los Angeles Times (February 1991 and December 1992) and Variety (1992) for Cheers pay, quoted with their differing units intact. The Television Academy for the Emmy record and Variety for the 2025 Carol Burnett Award and the season two casting. CNW’s separate profiles for Mary Steenburgen, Kelsey Grammer and Shelley Long for the comparisons. Forbes was checked directly and has no profile for him. Figures with no named source behind them — the residual estimate, the property listing repeated by aggregators — are named as unsourced rather than printed as fact. Process: About Us.
Frequently asked questions
What is Ted Danson’s net worth in 2026?
Celebrity Net Worth estimates about $80 million, but the date matters: that profile was last modified on 12 November 2024, so it is not a 2026 valuation. Forbes publishes no Ted Danson profile at all, so any figure attributed to Forbes for him has been made up.
How much did Ted Danson make per episode of Cheers?
About $450,000 in the show’s final seasons, which made him the highest-paid actor on television — but the trades of the day differ on the unit. The Los Angeles Times stated $450,000 per episode in February 1991. Variety in 1992 said more than $450,000 per episode, amounting to almost $12 million for a 26-episode year. The Los Angeles Times in December 1992 instead described at least $250,000 a week, with speculation reaching $450,000 a week. The figure is well attested; the exact unit never was.
Does CNW’s $4.5 million “total earnings” mean that is his career total?
No, and the row is simply broken. Celebrity Net Worth’s career-earnings table has two entries: $4 million for the film Getting Even with Dad, and $450 thousand per episode for Cheers. It added a one-off fee to a single episode’s rate to reach $4,450,000. By CNW’s own prose on the same page, Cheers paid him around $12 million a season for three seasons and CSI paid $250,000 an episode across 86 episodes — roughly $57 million from those two jobs alone.
Who is the richest Cheers cast member?
On Celebrity Net Worth’s numbers it is a tie rather than a win. Danson is at $80 million on a profile modified in November 2024, and Kelsey Grammer is also at $80 million on one modified in June 2026. What is more revealing is the spread across the cast, which runs from about $3 million for Shelley Long up to that $80 million — a range of more than twenty-five to one among people who worked on the same hit show.
How much is Mary Steenburgen worth, and can you add it to his?
Celebrity Net Worth estimates Steenburgen at $80 million too, on a profile modified 17 April 2025. You should not add the two into $160 million. CNW’s own text says the couple own their properties together, and compilers routinely assign shared marital assets to both spouses’ individual profiles, so adding the profiles counts the same assets twice. Treat them as overlapping estimates of one shared financial life.
Does Ted Danson still earn residuals from Cheers?
As the lead of a show that ran 11 seasons and has been in syndication since 1993, he is the kind of performer who keeps receiving residual and participation payments, so almost certainly yes in principle. The amount, though, is not public. A figure of around $5 million a year circulates on secondary sites that name no source for it, and no studio filing, trade report or compiler quantifies his residuals, so this page does not put a number on it.
Bottom line
Ted Danson’s money has one compiler estimate and one genuinely well-documented salary. Celebrity Net Worth says about $80 million, on a profile stamped 12 November 2024; Forbes has no page for him at all. The Cheers pay of roughly $450,000 per episode is attested by the Los Angeles Times and Variety at the time, with the unit left unresolved between per-episode and per-week, and Variety’s “almost $12 million” for a 26-episode year is the most concrete annual figure anyone printed. Against that sits a $30 million divorce settlement, joint property with Mary Steenburgen that cannot be stacked on top of his estimate, and residuals that everyone assumes and nobody has quantified. And CNW’s own $4.5 million “total earnings” row is not a small number for a big career — it is a film fee added to one episode’s rate, which is why the first question to ask about any money figure is not how big it is, but what it is counting.
