When I think of Baywatch, I automatically think of Pamela Anderson’s iconic role in the TV show. However, I just found out how much the actress got paid early on to be in the show, and it’s definitely a lot less cash than what I would have expected. While promoting her leading role in what’s apparently one of the funniest 2025 movie releases, The Naked Gun, the actress spilled on what she originally made and how that compared to David Hasselhoff's amount.
How Much Was Pamela Anderson Paid For Baywatch?
When Pamela Anderson was on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM show with The Naked Gun cast promoting the comedy, the host asked what she was making when she joined the series in 1992. Here’s what she said:
At the beginning. Yeah, like $1,500 I think an episode, which is low for TV.
That’s not a lot, especially considering that Baywatch was once one of the most watched shows in the world, with an estimated weekly audience of more than 1.1 billion in 142 countries in 1996, per Guinness World Records. Cohen followed up his question by asking when her first renegotiation took place. In her words:
It happened fairly quickly. By the end, they had to add a few zeros to that, but I mean, at the very end.
In the docuseries After Baywatch: Moment In The Sun, it was revealed (via The New York Post) that most actors on the show weren’t happy with their paycheck, with Nicole Eggert sharing they offered everyone “like $3,500 a show”. As the actress pointed out, it was a big difference to Friends where they were making “$1 million an episode”. The cast also claimed that “everyone was disposable” on Baywatch, and if you didn’t “fit into their brand” and the “price they were paying you, you were gone.”
How Did It Compare To David Hasselhoff?
After seeing this interview, I also learned that Pamela Anderson actually spent most of her life in debt. In her viral Netflix documentary, Pamela, A Love Story, it was revealed that she spent most of her life dealing with financial woes, even though at one time, she was one of the most famous women in the world. During the same Cohen interview, the host asked her if she thought she made the same as co-star David Hasselhoff. Here’s her response:
Are you kidding? No, of course not. No. I mean, I don't get residuals even from Baywatch. I mean, I think, you know, I mean, you sign these contracts. First of all, you don't know there's gonna be streaming… And I didn't really have a lot of representation back then, so, yeah. I mean, it's okay. Here I am doing what I'm doing now, but yeah. That's a rabbit hole you don't want to talk to my kids about.
I'd like to think that if Baywatch premiered today things would be different, but it is what it is for Pamela Anderson. The 58-year-old icon shared that her kids are “very protective” over the fact that she didn’t get what she deserved on Baywatch and isn’t getting streaming residuals because the medium didn’t exist when she signed her contract. It sounds like they are ready to fight for her, and perhaps change those circumstances.
However, Anderson she said she likes what she’s “doing” right now. Considering CinemaBlend’s The Naked Gun review, we like what she’s doing right now, too!
