On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 9:48 AM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:
> The $30M that was being quoted for Dave was a license fee to Worldwide > Pants to produce the show. Dave did not pocket that sum (minus taxes, > agent, manager, etc). So he paid the writers, producers, band, etc from it. > I am sure his take home was substantial, but there is no way of knowing > what it is. And there were cutbacks over the years as CBS lowered the > payout during contract renewal negotiations. (SNIP) > The number of interest I suppose is how much more CBS now has to pay to produce the show compared to when Dave was doing it? I could not find a simple report of how much it cost to produce Late Show; this article ( http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/25/business/la-fi-ct-latenight25-2010jan25) in the LAT from 6 years ago says it costs between $1.5 and $2.5M per week to put on a late night network show - this includes the salary to the host, which presumably is the single biggest line item by far. If we say there are 41 weeks of new shows every year (which is what Colbert just did), and peg that at $2M per week, that would be a production cost of $82M per year - probably more with costs for reruns - lets call it $85M per year (not adjusting for inflation). This does not sound out of line for the annual cost of producing a show like this. That same Time magazine article I linked earlier put ad revenue for the three late night broadcast shows at $600M for 2014, and rising. It is not clear to me if that is for just the 11:35 shows, or includes the later shows as well, but I have to assume the bulk of the revenue comes from the earlier shows anyway. I would guess that CBS is getting at least $150M a year in ad revenue for Late Night; that would put their profit at something like $65M a year if the cost was $85M/year. The actual numbers are no doubt different, but this seems like a plausible first approximation. But something does seem wrong with these numbers if it were literally true that Worldwide Pants was paying for all of the production costs of the show. That would mean they were losing $55M a year (getting paid $30M, paying $85M a year). Maybe WWP also got a fraction of the ad revenue? Or do they make money in some other way from owning the show? Or, as I seem to vaguely remember, did they share the production costs in some way with CBS? *From:* PGage <[email protected]> > *To:* "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Sunday, September 4, 2016 12:19 PM > *Subject:* Re: [TV orNotTV] Wilmore sits with Colbert next week > > http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2016/09/02/late-night-ratin > gs-august-22-26-2016-jimmy-kimmel-live-scores-low/ > > In case the formatting from the chart below from tvbythenumbers is not > preserved, I will briefly summarize: > > The relative rankings of the three network broadcast 11:35 shows is > preserved from the Dave/Leno era . From my memory, the magnitude of the > differences is about the same as well - CBS about 1M behind NBC and .5M > ahead of ABC (year long average). The demo numbers show Kimmel to be a bit > closer to Colbert. > > I still don't understand the hand wringing about Colbert's numbers, unless > there really was an expectation at Black Rock that Colbert would improve > over Dave. Most likely there is some disappointment that Colbert has not > significantly improved over Dave's ratings in the demo. > > But, Colbert makes "only" $4.6M/year; the Time article linked below says > Dave was making $30M/year, but my memory and other sources suggest Dave > took a pay cut in the last few years and was making more like $20M. Fallon > makes $11-$12M, Kimmel $10M. > > To me it seems like the Colbert Late Show is a huge finanancial success > for CBS, which is making out like a bandit: For less than a quarter of what > they paid Dave they are getting basically the same ratings; for less than > half of what NBC pays Fallon they are getting two thirds of the ratings; > for less than half what ABC pays Kimmel they are getting better ratings. > > http://time.com/money/4025147/stephen-colbert-late-show-salary/ > > *Show* *Net* *Adults 18-49, 8/22- 8/26* *Viewers (millions), 8/22- 8/26* > *Adults > 18-49 season to date * > *11:35 p.m.* > > > > > The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon NBC 0.82/5 3.18 0.99/5 > Late Show with Stephen Colbert ABC 0.46/2 2.14 0.61/3 > Jimmy Kimmel Live CBS 0.42/2 1.97 0.53/3 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > The $30M that was being quoted for Dave was a license fee to Worldwide Pants to produce the show. Dave did not pocket that sum (minus taxes, agent, manager, etc). So he paid the writers, producers, band, etc from it. I am sure his take home was substantial, but there is no way of knowing what it is. And there were cutbacks over the years as CBS lowered the payout during contract renewal negotiations. Even as Moonves and CBS told Dave that he could have a show as long as he wanted, it was clear that Dave's announcement did not come as a surprise to CBS and they clearly game planned the succession. So the decision to go after Colbert was not a panicked or desperate decision. They signed him for 5 years and I'm sure that Colbert's side put in terms that would be punitive to CBS if they wanted to terminate it. Plus, CBS prided itself on avoiding the mess that NBC had to go through in replacing Leno. To remove Colbert after a year and have to go through a whole rebuild of a new show, while believing that there is only upside in the ratings, is pretty much unthinkable. -- -- 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
