Variety released the list of TV's Top Salaries in Review, which examined who makes what in the world of comedy, drama and unscripted.
Something that was very obvious after reading the charted data was how much the stars of Queer Eye (Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness) make compared to their fellow unscripted cohorts.
According to Variety's report, each of the Queer Eye guys earns $7,500 an episode. Not a bad chunk of change for the regular person out there, however it pales in comparison to what others make.
Let's have a rundown here. Sarah Silverman pulls in $225,000 an episode for her Hulu series I Love You, America. Kelly Clarkson earns a whopping $560,000 an episode for The Voice. Kevin Hart is right up there with Kelly for his show TKO, where he earns $500,000 an episode.
It begs the question as to why the Queer Eye guys aren't demanding more money for their show, given how quickly it was renewed and how they've already aired two seasons in such a short amount of time.
This isn't a gay specific problem either. Major hit shows like Riverdale only pay their stars $40,000 an episode. Both are huge hits with their own audiences and have found much success on social media and at awards shows as well.
Perhaps they should renegotiate their salaries for season 3 given how drastic the numbers really are.
Sarah Silverman and Kevin
Sarah Silverman and Kevin Hart are at totally different levels of celebrity than these guys. I can't legitimately call the Queer Eye guys "celebrities." It's a very niche show that gets a lot of publicity in our circle, but isn't very widely watched. As glad as I am that shows like this exist, it's really very low quality stuff that lost its novelty after the first run a decade ago.
Its pretty standard for an
Its pretty standard for an "unknown" to sign for an amount that seems paltry as they are betting on the show to do well. And they sign contracts to reflect that. If its a big hit, they renogotiate either at renewal or sooner, if long contract. Its really NOT shocking at all.