About $15,000 an episode. That was the average rate Josh Peck was earning by the time Drake & Josh wrapped, and he says it was nowhere near as lavish as it sounds.
Peck laid out the figures on the “Financial Tea with Mrs. Dow Jones” podcast, in an episode that LADbible and Variety both covered. The show ran 60 episodes in total. “Over four years, we wound up making about $900,000,” he said, “but I think we probably, between agent, manager, and taxes, we cleared half of that.” Spread over four years, he put the take-home at roughly $125,000 a year.
From $3,000 to $15,000
His pay started far lower. On The Amanda Show, where he first worked with Drake Bell, he and his castmates were paid $3,000 an episode. The rate climbed once the pair got their own series, but never to the level many fans picture for the star of a hit Nickelodeon show.
Peck was careful not to sound ungrateful. People sometimes tell him that other jobs are tougher and ask who he is to complain. “I’m not,” he said. His reason for raising it is the myth that child stars are set for life. “If you made the salary of a dentist or something like that, you couldn’t just stop working after four years,” he explained.
There was another catch. Children’s television, he said, paid no residuals, the fees actors get when a show is rerun. The series kept airing, yet neither he nor Bell earned anything from it.
No leverage, no alternative
Why did the cast accept it? Peck said they had little bargaining power because Nickelodeon was essentially the only outlet for young performers working at that level. The host raised the example of the Friends cast negotiating together. “It was a different time,” Peck said. “There was only one sort of place to do it, right?” There was no rival network or streaming platform to walk to.
Money was tight at home as well. In 2022, he told the Trading Secrets podcast that his mother drove a used BMW five series and that the family lived in a two-bedroom apartment. “We lived a very middle-class life,” he said. Variety reports that Peck, raised by a single mother, became the main earner in the house as a teenager, which left him anxious about small expenses even after his income grew.
That worry shaped how he handles money now. He credits his mother, his accountant and a Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor named Dan with steering him toward low-cost index fund investing. He did not buy a home until his mid-30s, preferring to keep a cushion in case acting work dried up.
For families who grew up watching the show, whether in Manila, Jakarta or Mumbai, the figures are a useful reality check. Peck still acts, hosts “Good Guy’s Podcast” and says he turns down some brand deals to stay available for his own family.
Sources
- Former Nickelodeon star Josh Peck reveals amount he was paid for Drake & Josh
- Josh Peck Reveals 'Drake and Josh' Pay on 'Financial Tea' Podcast
