Angela Bassett [1] is set to make history with her pay raise for Fox's 9-1-1! Deadline first shared news of the salary bump on Aug. 3, reporting that Bassett would be making around $450,000 [2] per episode on the first-responder drama. Not only would this raise make her one of the highest-paid actors on network television, but she could also become the highest-paid woman of color ever for a network drama. The salary encompasses Bassett's role as an executive producer on 9-1-1 [3], which is a title she's held since the show's second season, and 9-1-1: Lone Star.

It's hard to believe that we're only reaching this milestone in 2021 when the cast of Friends was making $1 million [4] per episode by the time the show ended in 2004. Even Scandal's Kerry Washington [5] and How to Get Away With Murder's Viola Davis [6] were reportedly only making near $250,000 per episode, although Davis's pay may have increased to nearly $450,000 by the time her series ended. According to the National Women's Law Center, Black women are paid 63 cents [7] for every dollar made by white men and in 2020, they had to work an extra 214 days to catch up to what white men made. While there's still a ways to go when it comes to equal pay in Hollywood, hopefully Bassett's amazing milestone opens the door for other actresses of color.