How Much Does Betty White Make From ‘The Golden Girls’ Reruns?
It’s been almost 30 years since the last original episode of The Golden Girls aired on NBC. While the series ended, the beloved comedy lives on in reruns so fans will never have to miss Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia.
The last remaining Golden Girl herself, Betty White, still benefits from the program. Here’s what she earns annually from the precious reruns.
Betty White has been on television since the medium debuted in the US
Betty White’s television career has featured several remarkable series including Life With Elizabeth, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and of course, The Golden Girls alongside Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty.
While she’s known today mainly as Betty White, comedic actor, her game show chops are just as first-class.
She’s appeared through the years on shows including Hollywood Squares, Password, Match Game, To Tell The Truth, What’s My Line?, and I’ve Got A Secret.
“I started out as an actress in the business,” White told the Archive of American Television in 1997, “but then I did game shows and talk shows. I became a ‘television personality.’ So everybody was so surprised. ‘Why, Betty can act, isn’t that amazing?’”
Betty White on how the American sense of humor has changed in her 80 years as an actor
In a 2012 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, White spoke on her long-running career and whether she thinks the definition of ‘funny’ has changed for Americans over the years.
“The audience has certainly changed, because when I started in television is when television started,” she explained. “It was all brand, brand new and exciting. Over the years, naturally the audience has heard every joke, they know every premise, they know where you’re going even before you start.
“That’s a tough audience to write for and to surprise, so the writers have a real chore now. Sure, there are new viewers, kids growing up, but they’re a very, very sophisticated, jaded audience.”
How much Betty White earns from reruns of ‘The Golden Girls’
Once The Golden Girls reached its seventh season in 1992, Bea Arthur, who died in 2009, announced that she wanted out from the show.
The show couldn’t go on without Arthur and the reruns continued airing in earnest and still do today.
After the Maude star left the show, White, McClanahan, and Getty soldiered on in their own spin-off series, The Golden Palace. The new comedy featured the ladies going in together on a hotel business.
Unfortunately, the golden magic had disappeared and the three costars went their separate ways.
Betty White has done well for herself as far as her earnings from the show are concerned. According to Collider, the actor makes a reported $3 million a year just from The Golden Girls‘ reruns.
Thank you for being a friend, indeed!
