Aww, what a nice man! According to the WSJ, Jay Leno has taken a 50 percent pay cut as part of NBC’s cost-cutting measures. In exchange, his contract was extended through 2014.
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.
So, now Jay Leno only makes around $15 million more per year than he deserves, which I suppose is an improvement over $30 million more than he deserves. However, it also throws a huge wrench into any plans NBC might have had into moving Jimmy Fallon into the Tonight Show slot soon in order to compete with Jimmy Kimmel, who has been moved to 11:35 slot. NBC CEO Robert Greenblatt isn’t worried, however, saying he is “unfazed by Kimmel,” though he may “siphon off some young hipsters from Letterman.”
Ha! So, basically, Greenblatt is conceding that Leno’s audience is geriatric, and he has nothing to worry about from Kimmel, who appeals to a younger target demo. If I were Greenblatt, I might worry more that gravestones will siphon off some of Leno’s audience.
Indeed, way to think toward the future, NBC! You just keep riding those old people as long as possible, so when Fallon finally takes over The Tonight Show, 80 percent of its audience will be in hospice care.
Here’s a Jennifer Love Hewitt GIF. Why? Because it’s Friday, and I like you. IT’S A GIFT. So stop asking questions and shut up. JEEZ.
(Source: WSJ)
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Stop penis! I command you to stop we both know who that is! Remember that gifs are just moments in time and do not display the full on crazy that is JLH.
Nice try, Jay, but you could cure cancer and you’d still be the worst.
Just retire already!
It’s a sad state of affairs when you start referring to the CBS audience as “young.”
Also, I resent the implication that younger Letterman fans are hipsters.
I think I’m in love with you Patty. I really hope you’re not a dude.
I assume everyone posting is a dude. Especially the posters that claim to be women.
Patty is ALL THAT IS WOMAN!
It’s a trick! She uses good sense, good opinions and pictures of Chuck and Annie to fool us and then, BAM you wake up in a bathtub full of ice and your kidneys are stolen and sold.
Ah, the eternal battle: Hipsters vs. Break-a-Hip-sters
So if they slashed their budget by about 20%, then their original budget was around $125m a year. So they still cut $10m from the show other than Jay’s salary. If Jay was really that good of a guy, he would have taken the whole $25m pay cut. If he doesn’t use it, then why does he need any pay?
Thank you Dustin. It’s a lovely gift. It truly is.
If Leno was actually funny this would be a better story. Then you’d say “how good of him to take a pay cut to save his staff and his show”. As it stands he’s just another overpaid, overhyped “institution” that somehow made a career out of being mediocre. We call that the Rachel Ray Model.
I thought plus sized women smeared in lasagna were the Rachael Ray models
But Rachel Ray occasionally produces something palatable.