Top 50 Power Showrunners 2011

Forbes recently named Perry, 42, the highest-paid man in entertainment, with $130 million earned from May 2010 to May 2011. House of Payne and Meet the Browns -- both of which received rare 90-episode commitments upon their respective launches in 2006 and 2009 -- soon will be joined by a third Perry comedy, For Better or Worse, based on his Why Did I Get Married? films. Despite his busy film career -- he has raked in more than $207 million just from the three-film Madea franchise alone -- Perry still makes time to be in showrunner mode in Atlanta, the headquarters for his operations, attending morning table reads, writing in the afternoon and dropping by the sets. Michael Wright, head of TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies programming, says Perry has helped "establish the network as a prime destination for African-American viewers" as Payne and Browns ranked among the top sitcoms with black adults in key demos in the first quarter of 2011.