KELSEY GRAMMER — HIGHEST SALARIED TV STAR

And you thought the Friends stars were making the big bucks at $750,000 a piece per episode?

Well, that’s peanuts compared to what Frasier funny man Kelsey Grammer will be raking in next season.

According to Variety insiders, Grammer will be making an estimated $1.6 million per episode during it’s tenth and eleventh seasons.

That’s 48 episodes at $1.6 mil, which adds up to a whopping $75 million making Grammer the highest salaried television actor in history.

A deal between NBC and Paramount Network Television has NBC shelling out $5.2 million per episode to keep Frasier on NBC through the year 2004.

That will mean 20 years as the character for Grammer, who spent 11 years as Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC hit sitcom Cheers.

Grammer has won three best actor Emmy’s for his role as Frasier and the show itself won five Emmy’s for outstanding comedy in the first five years it was on the air.

Frasier kicks off its ninth season this fall.