Josh Peck is pushing back on one of the biggest assumptions about former child stars: that a hit TV show automatically means lifelong wealth.
The Drake & Josh alum discussed his Nickelodeon pay on the June 25 episode of Financial Tea with Mrs. Dow Jones, explaining that the numbers looked larger on paper than they felt in real life.
E! News reported that Peck said he earned about $900,000 across four years on Drake & Josh.
Peck Broke Down His Nickelodeon Pay
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Peck said he started out making about $3,000 per episode on The Amanda Show, where he appeared from 2000 to 2002. By the time Drake & Josh ended, he said his average rate across the show’s 60-episode run was about $15,000 per episode.
Those figures added up to roughly $900,000 over four years. Page Six reported that Peck estimated he cleared about half of that after his agent, manager, and taxes were paid.
That left him with a strong income, but not the kind of money people often imagine when they think of a hit kids’ sitcom that kept airing after its original run.
He Said the Money Was Good, Not Life-Changing
Peck said the money worked out to about $125,000 a year during the Drake & Josh run. He acknowledged that many people would consider that a great salary, but said the issue is the assumption that someone who made that money for four years would never need to work again.
“If you made the salary of a dentist or something like that, you couldn’t just stop working after four years,” Peck said, according to Page Six.
The Comments Fit a Larger Nickelodeon Pay Conversation
Peck’s remarks landed after former co-star Drake Bell made similar comments about Nickelodeon residuals. People reported in 2025 that Bell said he does not receive residual checks from Drake & Josh, even as the show continues to live through reruns and streaming.
Bell criticized the public belief that everyone on television is rich and said many Nickelodeon performers were paid only for the original work. He argued that residuals are where many actors make long-term money, but claimed that most performers from his Nickelodeon era do not receive them.
Peck also connected his work ethic to growing up with financial insecurity. Page Six reported that he described a fear of going broke again and said that pressure stayed with him long after his Nickelodeon years.