NBC has finally released information regarding Jay Leno’s pay cut from the Tonight Show.
Last month, news surfaced that Leno took a pay cut to prevent over 20 staff layoffs from the show. NBC was looking to slice the Tonight Show‘s $100 million budget to about 80 million. Now, NBC has released the details on how much was cut from the talk show host’s pay. Leno took a $15 million pay cut from his $30 million salary, making it an official 50%. What a stand up guy?
Robert Greenblatt, the chief of NBC’s entertainment confirmed the pay cut number to the Wall Street Journal, along with news that Leno extended his contract for two years. Greenblatt went on mentioning that there is no date set yet for Leno to leave the show. “That’s a conversation we’ll have as we look down the road. 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.’”
Greenblatt also said he noticed that there could be a problem with the Tonight Show’s budget last spring and wanted to address it. “I went to [Leno’s] office and we sat down and I said, ‘We have to be smart about how we do this show. We are in a difficult place at the network’…He understood.”
The chief went on saying the Tonight Show is “not the cash cow it was in the Johnny Carson days. Everything is less profitable these days, including the prime-time schedule.”
