Here’s your daily reminder that even if you work hard, get a degree, and maybe even love your job, you still won’t have as much money as Ellen DeGeneres.
I have a nice day job for someone my age. I make more than both my parents combined; on Fridays, I get to wear jeans; and I even have my own office with a pretty sweet view of the Atlantic Ocean.
But even though my tax bracket is a little closer to dentists and the like, I know that my income pales in comparison to Ellen DeGeneres, whose hit talk show plays on the televisions in the lobby every day at 4 p.m. rain or shine. It’s like a gentle reminder that no matter how hard we work, we still won’t be millionaires. Or rather, millionaires a few hundred times over.
Of course, that’s not to say that Ellen doesn’t work hard. But if you really dug into the root of her job—all the planning involved to craft a show, the public pressure, and her commitment to putting good vibes into the world and be an example of kindness—a lot of what Ellen does sounds pretty similar to, say, a busy teacher.
So, when we look at Variety‘s new report on who made what this year in the realm of television, I’m not sure if $50 million a year is really that fair. There are teachers who don’t even make $50 thousand.
Plus, there is a little addendum at the bottom:
"NOTE: SOME OF THESE FIGURES INCLUDE FEES FOR PRODUCING AND BACK-END COMPENSATION."
And her show’s been syndicated AND she gives back a lot. So, okay, free pass for you, Ellen.
PSA: Ellen DeGeneres is the only free pass allowed on TV
Because guess who doesn’t get a free pass? Katy Perry. For raking in $25 million for American Idol, while Ryan Seacrest only earned $12 million.
As perplexed as that makes me, Katy Perry’s making string cheese compared to Kaley Cuoco’s entire cheese factory. It’s not a secret that the cast of The Big Bang Theory makes a ton of money per episode, so this goes for all of them. My beef is the inflammation of their worth, okay? For a show that’s only diminished in quality over the past five seasons and the fact that Variety also reported that they made an “extraordinary gesture” just by giving up like, what? A $100,000 to equalize their paychecks with co-stars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch. That’s absolutely mind-boggling. I mean, hey, Kaley Cuoco makes bank and I actually like her car commercials, that’s great. But also, that’s a lot of money for someone who plays “the pretty, dumb one” in the nerdy friend group.
That’s a lot of money for Bridget “I bleed feminism” Hennessey, that’s all I’m saying.
Like, sure, we all want women to make money. But if that’s the case, why is Emmy-winner and way more hilarious person Julia Louis-Dreyfus only making $250,000? Why is equally-successful Sofia Vergara making $500,000? Why isn’t Taraji P. Henson, the backbone of Empire, even making enough to be on this list?
Apparently, this is just an estimate. But why won’t Variety explain why there’s no cap on these salaries? In sports, they have salary caps. Now, it makes sense that the principal cast of Game of Thrones, which airs on HBO and shoots in the middle of freezing temperatures sometimes, earns $500,000 an episode each. And since they only do a handful of episodes a season, that’s okay.
“Okay” in the sense that it’s not as ridiculous as Robert De Niro’s $775,000 for a show that nobody even knows will be good yet.
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Naturally, Variety also wanted to point out that these numbers can and will change ahead of the new seasons. For example, the This is Us cast will get more money this year. Additionally, I can think of a few more people who make a ton of cash and aren’t even on this list.