On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 12:57 AM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > 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. >> > 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. > I have now found a report of Leno's salary at the "Jay Leno Show", and his previous Tonight Show salary: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/nbcs-jay-leno-plan-sense-51692
"...Leno will earn a salary that could reach $30million, depending on the ratings. He has a four-year contract, but NBC has an option to cancel after only two years, sources say. (He's been making about $20 million a year hosting "The Tonight Show.")" So now it makes sense. First, the ambiguity about Leno's current Tonight Show salary (prior to Friday), which I almost always see as a range between $25 and $30M. The exact salary was supposed to be tied to the JLS's ratings. When Leno took back his chair from Conan, he not only got back the job he really wanted, but also got himself a $5-$10M raise over what he had been making before. While I do feel bad for Kevin's friends and associates who have lost their jobs in a bad economy, I am now much less critical of Comcast's motives than I was initially. This reads less like heartless corporate raiders stripping down assets to maximize profits, and more like a new owner trying to clean up some of the left over mess. For two and a half years the Tonight Show has been running on a significantly increased budget, and Leno has had a significantly increased salary, even though its ratings have been down, and the ad market has been soft. This move seems to just be returning the Tonight Show back to a "normal" budget. -- 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
