Soap Budgets

[Paul Raven]

I recall reading that Jackie Zeman was on $300,000 per year when she returned to GH in the early 80's.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Paul Raven

[BetterForgotten]

Gee, I wonder what she spent most of that on...

Edited May 1, 2020 by BetterForgotten

[AMCer]

You could still make a great deal of money writing a soap into the mid-2000s. Even the cheapskates at P&G forked over more than a million dollars annually to Hogan Sheffer by 2002.

[Paul Raven]

Rosemary Prinz was earning $1000.00 per ep for How To Survive a Marriage in 1974 and on a guarantee of 3 eps per week.

That's roughly 15,000 a week in today's money. 

I believe that made her the highest paid daytime actor at the time.

Edited May 1, 2020 by Paul Raven

[watson71]

In 1980, did Beverlee McKinsey (Iris) become daytime's highest paid star when  she was given star billing on Texas? Ken Roberts intoduced each episode as "Texas, starring Beverlee McKinsey"

 

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Edited May 1, 2020 by watson71

[VanessaReardon]

You can still make great money writing soaps. The minimum you can make is determined by the WGA union contracts. They haven’t lowered their minimum rates. Writing a soap is very lucrative. 

[Paul Raven]

A 1974 article on soaps stated that top writers like Gillian Houghton (Secret Storm) could earn upwards of $100,000 per year.

[mikelyons]

We always hear soaps don't make any money, but below are the actual revenue numbers for Sony Pictures Entertainment's television division's earning before interest and tax. Y&R was Sony Pictures Television's most profitable show in its division. It was also the third most profitable show in ALL of Sony Pictures Television behind Breaking Bad ($5,751,000) and Drop Dead Diva ($5,207,000). 

 

Sony Pictures Television Consolidated Revenue Reconciliation 

BUDGET VS. ACTUAL FOR THE MONTH ENDED July 31, 2013

US Production & Ad Sales (TV)

Network, Unscripted, & Daytime (Revenue in millions, before EBIT)

1. The Young and the Restless: $2,417,000

2. MOB Doctor: $2,306,000

3. Dr. Oz: $2,259,000*

4. Days of Our Lives: $1,794,000

5. Other: $509,000

6. Wheel of Fortune: -$436,000*

7. Jeopardy!: -$1,554,000*

8. Michael J. Fox: -$3,600,000

9. Blacklist: -$5,400,000

10. Unforgettable: -$7,262,000

*Syndication (for comparison as a lot of Sony's syndicated material airs during daytime)

 

 

Budget Assumptions

THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS

• $100M annual license fee extension through 08/09 assumed
• SOAPnet assumed at $21.5K per episode (currently $18.5K; $4,800,000 per year)

DAYS OF OUR LIVES

• Contractual 07/08 license fee of $60M
• SOAPnet contract at $22K per episode ($5,720,000 per year) 

 

[Paul Raven]

Thanks for reviving this topic.

It is apparent that Y&R's budget has been cut to the bone.

They are down to taping 4 days.

Sets have been shrunk to allow more room for  permanent sets to save on having to pay for  assembling/pulling down sets on a regular basis.

A lot of actors have been put on recurring so they are only paid when they appear.

Contract cast have taken paycuts and reduced guaranteed appearances.

Fewer actors are used per episode.

There are no extras and hardly any day players.

Costume budget appears to have been cut -especially apparent from women's clothing. 

i wonder if backstage personnel have also been cut. Should compare the credits to see.

I'm sure Josh Griffith is being paid less than he would have for past gigs but would be earning a fair amount.

Anyone have any idea what he is making?

The whole COVID set cleaning and testing might have to come out of the established budget.

Having said all of that the show looks dreadful and it's embarassing that daytimes #1 soap looks so cheap.

[Darn]

I wonder why we Y&R's budget cut is so apparent onscreen. GH doesn't look nearly as cheap and I'm pretty sure that show is produced for even less. Actually none of the other soaps look as cheap as Y&R, what's the deal? Y&R is rather top heavy with veteran talent. Maybe that's where the majority of the budget is going.

[Michael]

FYI the Covid compliance costs (extra team members on set, testing, etc) should be coming out of the established budget. Few shows have received a budget increase to account for those additional costs. I'm sure it's being factored in as budgets are being created for new, high-profile shows, but that factor has been a hit to most established/running shows.

Y&R still looks cheap as hell, though. And this is coming from a Days fan!

[mikelyons]

All shows (from a tiny independent film to a soap opera) should have a contingency budget which is how they should be funding the COVID compliance costs. I imagine Television City would front some of the costs with the shows which shoot at the studio since they have an interest in keeping it a healthy space when PRICE IS RIGHT, Y&R, B&B, REAL TIME..., etc. all record there and use the same crew quite a bit. Heck, PRICE IS RIGHT and REAL TIME... share a stage! 

I'll have to do more digging because I do have more Y&R and DAYS budget figures. The only thing we don't have real insight into is how the license fee is split. Yes, CBS paid Sony $100m for Y&R's license fee, but how did Sony divvy up that check? How much went to production? How much went to Sony, the Bells, and Corday? If we assume a 25% profit from the license fee on Y&R, that leaves $75m for production and $25m for the production partners. DAYS is financed differently because Sony negotiates the fee with NBC and then takes a distribution fee, but the ultimate fee is turned over to Corday. Even if Sony takes a 35% distribution fee, Corday is getting $39m to produce DAYS which is $750,000 a week...and that pretty much tracks with how much DAYS was getting a few years ago.

 

[Manny]

Maybe also Y&R uses their budget to pay its stars more than other soaps, which leaves them less money for other stuff like sets, costumes, clothes etc.

[Darn]

Y&R is extremely top heavy with veteran players and unlike Days and GH, which also employ a decent number of veteran actors, their vets are on contract. How much do we think Braeden/Thomas Scott/Bergman, etc. are earning? 

[Broderick]

I believe the current Writers Guild of America minimum for a head writer on a 60-minute serial is about $42,500 per week, or approximately $2,200,000 per year. Josh Griffith may earn more than the union minimum.  lol. 

No idea what coddled veteran actors are being paid nowadays.  But we know from court documents (Shattuck v. Moss) how much Ronn Moss, a 25-year veteran, was being paid by "Bold & Beautiful" for the 2011-2012 season ($700,000 per year), and we know how much he was offered (and subsequently turned down) for the 2012-2013 season (a one-year contract valued at $400,000 per year).  We can assume from his offer that salaries declined approximately 3/7, or 42%, from 2011 to 2012 for long-term veteran actors.  Assuming Moss had accepted the 2012-2013 offer of $400,000 and continued to work on the show, and assuming further audience erosion caused a further 25% budget decrease between 2013 and 2022, his $400,000 per year would now be slashed to approximately $300,000 per year. 

Extrapolating Moss's numbers to a 60-minute serial such as Y&R, you could have easily have had a veteran actor making $800,000 per year for the 2011-2012 season.  His/her offer for the 2012-2013 season would've been approximately $460,000, based upon the Ronn Moss contract formula of 3/7 decrease from 2012 to 2013.  Assuming that viewer erosion in the subsequent nine seasons has caused a 25% decrease in salaries from the 2012-2013 season to the 2021-2022 season, that veteran would now be earning approximately $350,000 per year.  So I'd guess the older codgers may still earn somewhere between $300,000 to $500,000 per year.  (The variables, of course, are that traditionally salaries are higher on a one-hour serial than on a 30-minute serial, but the lucrative foreign market of "B&B" might make that particular show's budget more in line with the budget of an hour-long serial.)