On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 12:11 AM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> (SNIP) I'm going to be very generous and say all of the above > comes to $25k per week. Still leaves us with $185k to cut. > > In summary, the provided numbers don't add up. There is something we > aren't being told, or some of what we're being told is inaccurate. > I am now reading some variants details. The NYPost ( http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/tonight_show_lays_avoid_more_dozen_nYHfpPmlfBH9u4Jz3ju82I) reports that "Despite its solid ratings, “The Tonight Show” hasn’t been a big moneymaker. That prompted the cuts Friday, which are expected to trim the program’s weekly budget by about $600,000, or 25 percent, to $1.7 million. That’s back to its levels of a few years ago. (SNIP) During Leno’s brief stint hosting his prime-time program, his show’s weekly budget escalated and wasn’t reduced significantly to reflect his return to the late-night slot until now." If the Post is accurate (a BIG if, of course) then they had to cut twice as much ($600K, not $300K, per week) to get to the $1.7M/week. Leno's paycut (hard to pin this down, since his Tonight Show salary is reported as being between $25M and $30M prior to this, and now looks to be about $20M) would probably account for the difference between Kevin's numbers and what would have to be cut to get to $1.7M/week. But that only really helps explain this if somehow Leno got a pay raise when he went from Tonight to Prime Time, then kept his $5 to $10M pay raise until this week, when he agreed to a cut. I looked briefly, but could not find what his salary was for the Prime Time show. It does pretty much look though as if Leno's Tonight Show budget was significantly higher post-primetime than it has been pre-primetime, and that the cuts just announced are an attempt to bring the budget back to its pre-primetime level, perhaps even lower, in line with the cuts Letterman accepted a couple of years ago. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
