The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… Movieline’s Julie Miller who, based on TVGuide Magazine’s just released list of “TV’s Top Earners” seems surprised that the likes of JERSEY SHORE’s Snooki gets paid as much as GLEE’s Matthew Morrison in a piece called “Matthew Morrison is Paid the Same as Snooki, and 5 Other Devastating TV Paycheck Comparisons.”
Our Take: Suffice to say, Miller’s “Devastating TV Paycheck Comparisons” are slightly less so if one has a rudimentary knowledge of how the television industry works. Indeed, there is a very good reason the likes of Matthew Morrison and Jim Parsons are making a mere $30 – $40,000 dollars per-episode. That’s the standard starting salary one receives when they’re a relative unproven television commodity versus marquee names such as Julianna Marguilies ($175,000 per episode), Ed O’Neill ($100,000 per episode) and Betty White ($75,000 per episode). Sillier still is Miller’s comparison of Jane Lynch ($50,000 per episode) and Tina Fey ($350,000 per episode) to the likes of David Boreanaz ($200,000 per episode) and original DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Cross, Hatcher, Huffman and Longoria (Each of whom make $400,000 per episode). Lynch may be last season’s breakout star and this year’s run-away favorite to walk-away with an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy but she’s also one of 27 cast members on an incredibly pricey hour-long (GLEE), while Boreanaz is essentially 50% of one of Fox’s most successful series (BONES.) The incomparable writer/performer Tina Fey may make slightly less on 30 ROCK than those not-so-desperate-housewives, but she also attracts less than half of an audience. As for Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi walking away with $30,000 per-episode to “GTL”, well, we’re not going to lie, nothing makes us throw up in our mouth more! Except perhaps the realization that we actually know what the heck “GTL” (Gym, Tan, Laundry) stands for. That said, for better or for worse, $30,000 per-episode is commensurate with her current place in the cultural zeitgeist. 
