Posted on 09/07/2012 11:11:30 PM PDT by iowamark
Late-night talk show host Jay Leno took a 50% pay cut as part of NBC's budget-chopping effort last month at "The Tonight Show," the network said, detailing the scope of the changes for the first time as well as the reasoning behind them.
The outsized pay cut, which took Mr. Leno's salary down to around $15 million, helped NBC slash the show's $100 million annual budget by about 20%, the network said. At the same time, Mr. Leno, the leading late night host, extended his contract for another two years to May 2014...
"Tonight" is "not the cash cow it was in the Johnny Carson days," although he said it was still profitable...
Advertising, too, has dropped. "Tonight's" ad revenue fell to $159 million last year from $255 million in 2007, according to Kantar Media, while "Late Show With David Letterman," on CBS Corp.'s CBS +0.84% network, slumped to $155 million from $205 million over the same period...
Mr. Leno agreed. "We are just going to work harder and more efficiently," the host said in an email. "Our job is to be sure that none of this shows up on screen."
Meanwhile, Mr. Greenblatt hasn't spoken to the 62-year-old host about ending his 20-year-reign at "Tonight." "That's a conversation we'll have as we look down the road," he said.
When?
Mr. Greenblatt didn't know for certain, but said "I'm sure there will be a day when these guys—Letterman and Leno—wake up and say, 'It's time for us to exit gracefully.'"...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I never thought Letterman was funny, but I am disappointed that Leno is a lefty. As a car guy I would think he had a logical mind that would preclude him being a Dim.
Leno may want to reconsider this move; it’s a little difficult to see how he’s going to be able to pay his bills on only fifteen million a year...
Well, look at it this way: Jay gave himself a tax cut by cutting out 15M of his salary.
“No mention of Leno and Letterman’s radical Left politics are hurting their ratings.”
No kidding. I’m betting they’re completely clueless that they’ve alienated over half their audience. That’s the danger of living in a liberal echo chamber like these guys do.
That time was about 10 years ago for Letterman.
You can bet his accountants made sure this cut in salary was got classified to ensure he gets a huge tax benefit.
Meanwhile he can also ride his Harley back and forth to work to save money.
In all fairness, Leno does tend to mock Dems quite often...moreso than Letterman. I am sure Leno hears about that from his super-liberal wife. Leno goes about 60-40 w GOP-DNC jokes....when Letterman is about 99-00
Leno has always banked his Tonight Show salary....as he makes 10-15 million per year on his nightclub appearances he does on weekends and off-weeks. He can afford the Tonight Show cut
You can bet douchebag Conan O’Brien would have never accepted such a cut if he was still doing the TS
$70 million a year for a camera, a studio and some writers? (I subtracted Jay’s $30 mil from the original $100) I could do it for half that if they let me keep half the difference.
Down to $15 million a year? Maybe that will help him lose some weight! But,alas,the daily washing and waxing of his 215 classic cars might have to be cut back to every other day.
Last year, ABC executives decided the daytime soap opera was dead and pulled the plug on long time favorites All My Children and One Life to Live after decades on the air. I believe the days of the night time talk show are over as viewers are weary of hearing the wealthy elitists sit around and discuss their inane lives while real Americans are struggling. Working folks are exhausted from the stresses of their jobs and the unemployed truly have no stomach for watching the arrogance of these people laughing about their movie filming stories or extravagant parties. Kids don’t want to watch the old farts drooling all over themselves either. If they want to save some money they should cancel the shows altogether and air something that people would rather watch like fifties tv show reruns.
Carson was excellent.I often stayed up to watch him.Letterman used to be OK but I seldom saw him because his show was on so late.Today,I wouldn't give Letterman *or* Leno the right time of day.In fact,apart from the NFL I can swear that I *never* watch the networks today.
Never!
Previously Jay Leno was bemoaning how many staffers he had to cut.
He doesn’t live off the Tonight Show money. He saves that for retirement. He’s worth about a billion. The day to day expenses in his life (not the show’s) reportedly come from his live appearance gigs.
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