Massive, Across the Board Paycuts at ABC Daytime?!

[Juliajms]

I'm guessing if there is a new contract any time soon it might just work the other way. When an industry is failing, isn't the union usually asked to take cuts? If they don't doesn't the industry usually go under? You don't have to look further than the front page of CNN to see that happening in more than one industry right now (auto, airline). Soaps seem to be on the same disastrous path.

Honestly, I'm not sure what is really fair here. On the one hand unions have stopped the free market from working, which is probably part of the reason that these shows are going under. At the same time, things would probably be even more skewed in the favor of the studio without the union. Maybe there is no long term solution and soaps are an unworkable model going forward. It's looking more and more like that to me as time goes on. Unless we get a government bailout...

[MarkH]

Marceline, you are famous!! Your "axiom" made Roger Newcomb's We Love Soaps.

You might also be interested in this contrarian perspective at DC! "Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated". The site is down now, so I can't give a link, but you'll know it when you see it. It is a great, long, analytical, skeptical article! THIS is what the magazines SHOULD be.

[SFK]

We live in a world where actors (well, the handful of lucky ones) get paid more than teachers, and though that isn't "fair" in the grand scheme of things, it's absolutely appropriate. There's big money in film and television, and a) we should never let them convince us of otherwise, and believe me, it's not the actors who see the bulk of it. Actors (and in many cases, I use that term loosely) deserve every penny they get when as another poster said, they're making much bigger money for their employers. Whether they're wonderfully talented or just pretty/charismatic, if they're boosting viewership and ad dollars, they certainly deserve a heftier piece of the pie than the one they're probably getting.

I grew up in a soap loving family, if you asked me when I was a kid or a teen if I wanted to be on a soap, I'd emphatically say yes. Ask me now, not so much. I'm an awful combination of a procrastinator and an obsessive-compulsive. For me, soaps are too much work in too little time, I think I'd have an experience similar to JVA's on Y&R. Bite my tongue, but perhaps it's best that there aren't more "real" actors in soaps because they'd probably be banging their heads against walls and breaking down left and right with the lack of prep time. What bliss for a soap performer to get a fat check and not be burdened with craft.

[miche]

http://daytimeconfidential.com/2008/11/abc...-facing-daytime

[dragonflies]

There's an article by Michael Logan in the new TV Guide, he's saying even after she takes a paycut Lucci will still be making about $1 million a year

Frons says that "We are asking more from the ones who have more"

Hmm what about you asshat?

[JackPeyton]

To be fair tho, and idk why i or anyone wants to eb fair to said asshat, if a shows budget is cut then BF taking a paycut wont exactly help the budget of the show. His budget porb comes from abc overall.

[miche]

He need to take a 70% paycut

[MarkH]

To be clear: This is NOT a big salary for a star. She has made them MUCH more than this.

The whole thing makes me sick, honestly. It is like death by a thousand knives.