2012 Highest Paid TV Actresses

1.      Sophia Vergara isn't the clueless bombshell she leads us to believe she is on Modern Family! The sexy Columbian star has brains as well as beauty! In her 17 years in showbiz, 2012 was by far the greatest year for the actress. She had three movie roles, won endorsement deals in English and Spanish and launched a clothing line with Kmart that earned her an advance of seven figures. Vergara is also one half of the management company Latin World Entertainment. Her total earnings: $19 million.

  Kim Kardashian is not far behind! The reality TV star's face has been on more than 63 magazines in the last 12 months since she filed for divorce after just three weeks of blissful marriage. This was after she aired her special day to over 10 million viewers in a four hour special... cue media frenzy. Doing what Kardashians do best, she used the

bad press to gain a $30 million deal with E! for three more months of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. With her sisters Kourtney and Khloe she designed a clothing line for Sears, opened a new location of the family Boutique, DASH, and launched a specialty store in Las Vegas called Kardashian Khaos. Oh, and her perfume earned more than $6 million in retail sales. Her total earnings of the year: $18 million.

After eight seasons, Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria hung up her heels and waved goodbye to Wisteria Lane and her $375,000 per episode. Post-Housewives, Longoria has been busy though - she produced a pilot for a new series with Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, called Devious Maid, that has been picked up by Lifetime, and produced a dating reality show called Ready For Love for NBC. You must have also seen her famous face on L'Oreal Paris and Pepsi adverts. Her total earnings: $15 million.

Khloe is the dark-horse of the Kardashian family, with her own show Khloe & Lamar that premiered to an audience of more than 2.5 million viewers. The break-out star also hosted a radio show, signed a $30 million deal with E! for three more seasons of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, designed the clothing line Kardashian Kollection with her sisters and was part of the families new branch of their boutique, DASH. Total earnings: $11 million. Watch out Kim!

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  Reality star and creator of Skinnygirl Cocktails Bethenny Frankel is riding an entrepreneurial wave. In the last year, she has expanded the booze line from one product to 12, written her first novel called Skinnydipping, and debuted a daytime talkshow called Bethenny! Let's not forget her Bravo reality show, Bethenny Ever After that averages 1 million viewers each week. Her total earnings: $12 million.

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With the critical acclaim and multitude of A-list guest stars the success of 30 Rock this year was reflected in a considerable bump in earnings for the cast. Fey picked up awards for her work as the series' creator and star. Her total earnings: $11 million.

    

Averaging an estimated 53 million views a week, including original episodes and syndication, Hargitay has Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for her earning her a place on the list this year! She may be in a backseat role in the cast at the moment, but she's making easy money in her role as sex crime detective Olivia Benson. Total earnings: $10 million.

       

It has been a hell of a good year for quirky actress Zooey Deschanel. The movie turned network-TV star had commercial deals with big global companies Pantene, Apple and Rimmel London. Her show New Girl became a hit of FOX and she even had time to launch a new web site for women called hellogiggles.com with two friends. The site boasts 1.5 million daily users. Total earnings: $9 million.

   

Another Desperate Housewife made the list this year! Felicity Huffman not only joined her husband on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a star, she also took home an estimated $8 million for her Emmy Award-winning role of Lynette Scarvo in the final season. Not bad! She also had a few ad campaigns under her belt including, Got Milk? As a spokeswoman for Dole, this helped her beat her other co-stars Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher to the top end of the list. Felicity's total earnings: $9 million.

    

Ellen Pompeo boasts one of the highest salaries per-episode among U.S TV actresses. The Grey's Anatomy star reportedly pulls in an estimated $275,000 per episode! Plus rumours of a pay rise for seasons nine and ten which she has already committed to. And the money is still rolling in from old series, which is highly syndicated. Pompeo is a money machine, apparently launching her own production company called Calamity Jane which has already sold its debut project to ABC. Her total earnings: $9 million.