Massive, Across the Board Paycuts at ABC Daytime?!

[Jonathan]

This is so strange. I did this same calculation last night for La Lucci's salary. And I too had the same reaction. As I said in other posts, I just hope these salary cuts do not lead to these performers becoming bitter about coming to work.

Also, taking a salary cut is almost a sense of losing power because it will be hard for these performers to ever get back what they lost when it's time to renegotiate their contract. Salary increases are based on what you currently make. So a 10% increase on what La Lucci makes now is different than a 10% increase on what she was making previously.

[SteveFrame]

But folks what in life is fair.

Sure a doctor should make more than a soap actress, but at the same time they should also make more than a Sitcom actor or a football player or a basketball player. In the realm of peole a doctor should make more than - saop performers are still at the bottom of the rung and work harder than the others.

Nothing in our life is fair. That is just like the taxpayers paying for private jets for many of the Senate leaders to fly to and from Washington when it is time to go to work. Our local paper did a recent story that taxpayers pay up into the $100 millions of dollars each year for a jet to fly Nancy Pelosi to and from California. To me with their salary that should be their own responsibility to get there. But yet these same Senators that we the tax payers pay sat back and ridiculed the big 3 carmakers for taking their private jets when they did the same thing.

Should a public servant make more and have more perks than the working stiffs who sent him or her there and the very people they are supposed to represent.

If Susan Lucci is going to ridiculed and fans expect her to give up part of her salary then we as fans need to call for across the board fairness.

I just don't get where the soap opera actors and actresses all of a sudden are the recipients of venom from the fans when their salary is a just a drop in the bucket of the real problems that have killed soaps. The real problem starts with the networks who have mismanaged the money for years (esp. the years when soaps were making megabucks); it starts with the producers who like the networks have mismanaged and gotten rich off the backs of the very actors they work hard; it starts with the producers and writers who have ruined the shows with bad writing and stupid mistakes; and it especially starts with the Unions who do serve a good purpose but have put so many demands on the shows and have constantly pushed up salaries and now are even blacklisting writers who did nothing but try to continue to work legally using an option they had.

Those are the people I am mad at. Those are the people that need to get some of the venom and those are the people that especially need to be taking the cuts - or at least take their share of them.

[marceline]

Yay! That makes me happier than it should! I live by the belief that nothing is more oppressive than nostalgia.

Actually the Marceline Axiom can be summed up by the words of Billy Joel in Keepin' the Faith : "The good old days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."

[DaytimeFan]

As a physician, I have to say that I DON'T think Susan Lucci should make less money than me.

Susan Lucci works hard for her money, she's been working hard for 38 year for that money. She's probably made ABC hundreds of millions (if not a billion) of dollars over those 38 years and she should be rewarded for that. To me, $10,000 an episode is adequate compensation for the money she makes. She's like an investment. ABC invests $1.3 million into her and she makes them $50 million as well as non calculable value to the ABC Daytime and ABC Network brand.

The same goes for athletes, movie actors, sitcom stars, everybody. They make their respective organizations a ton of money and they deserve to be rewarded for that! That's capitalism kiddos.

I work hard, I charge what I feel is appropriate and I have a nice life. I'm happy with that. I'm happy for Susan Lucci, I'm happy for Plexico Burris (well prior to his ridiculous gun incident), I'm happy for Julia Roberts and George Clooney and even the executives of all those Wall Street firms that have gone belly up. They asked for what they felt they were worth and they got it. Good for them I say!

The money issues are not the fault of the actors, it's the fault of the executives and their greed.

[MarkH]

Wow, people are expressing things PERFECTLY tonight!

[marceline]

Susan Lucci busts her ass in a job that frankly I wouldn't want to do. Acting? yes. Schmoozing the public? I'd rather remove my own liver with a pair of needlenose pliers. So on that part I agree.

You lost me at Julia Roberts. That woman is a talent vacuum and I consider the fact that anyone pays her to act proof that God smokes crack. JMHO.

[DaytimeFan]

My argument has nothing to do with talent (last time I enjoyed Julia Roberts was 'My Best Friend's Wedding'). My argument rests on the fact that people who get a lot of money make a lot of money for someone else so their salary is rather reasonable in my eyes.

[marceline]

I was actually trying to be funny. (She swings, she misses!) Although I do hope those Wall Street executives have to pay because talent and/or skill should figure into this somewhere and those guys performed their jobs recklessly.

[DaytimeFan]

Well, at least your avatar picture is delightful

[Jonathan]

So true. You said it perfectly.

[Juliajms]

But when they are no longer making as much money for someone else, shouldn't the money they make be decreased? I certainly think so, if we are using the principles of capitalism to decide how things should be. I'm still not convinced that entertaining 2 million people is more important than saving 1 life, but since capitalisim says it is, I'll go with that to make my point. ABCD is now earning less in advertising to entertain those 2 million people, so why shouldn't everyone down the line take that cut?

However, the argument I'm making isn't really about the Susan Lucci's. As I said, I was talking about the people just coming into the business. Whether fans like it or not there are always plenty of newbies. People like Susan Lucci and Kim Zimmer are worth more because they are the face of their shows. But the new people are pretty much interchangeable. They are not making ABCD a lot of money because of who they are, they are making it because they had the dumb luck to be cast in a role. As I said, their are a ton of people who could have taken on the recently cast roles, so I see no reason at all these people should be paid more than a middle class salary. Then once they prove themselves they should get a reasonable raise.

[DaytimeFan]

I don't disagree with that. Newbies DO get paid newbie salaries. I have confidence that every cast member under the age of 30 on a soap gets paid less than I do.

[Jonathan]

You make a good point too. And I think that's why we see so many models turned actors on soaps. A lot of models want to get into acting and landing a soap must be a dream come true for them. They're paid dirt cheap but we fans have to suffer through their horrid acting. Some models turned actors actually prove their worth and have talent, like Josh Duhamel for example. Others, meanwhile just plain suck.

[Juliajms]

Oh, I'm sure you're right. I'm just saying I don't know why they should be paid more than anyone else in an entry level position. Why should a newbie soap actor be paid more than a nurse or a police officer? I just don't see that they are bringing anything so special to the table that they need to be paid more than middle class, which I only mention because another poster said that might bring down morale. Why should it?

[SteveFrame]

Newbies can't take cuts though. Their salary is set by the union and the show cannot pay them any less than they are supposed to make without being sanctioned, fined and blacklisted by the union. And if they go to strike and negotiate a new contract (and they will) those newbies will once again see their salary increase.

A newbie unless he is already established a name for himself in some field has no bargaining chips at the signing of their contract and they get scale pay which is what the Union requires.

Someone like Cornelius Smith Jr. or Billy Magnussen who are newcomers come into their contracts making scale and stay that way for a few years unless they get very very popular and have some demands they can make when their first 3 year contract ends.

An actors contract and even Agnes Nixon said this is not in favor of the actor - it is in favor of the show. An actor has to honor his contract for the duration - no outs for the actor. But a show can stop that contract every 13 weeks and fire the actor. Now they are asking the actors who already have negotiated contracts and have a set salary in place to once again bend over and take it by basically throwing away those contracts and taking a cut.

I admire Agnes Nixon for speaking out for the actors. She is a great lady and she is one that I can truly never took more than her share. Some of the ones there right now I am sure have gotten rich off the hard work of the many actors who have made their shows.