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I've been thinking about the whole Jersey Shore zeitgeist. You know the show. It's on Viacom's (VIA) MTV. It's a huge hit, everyone is talking about it and its stars (Snooki, The Situation, etc.). It also was mentioned in a recent conference call the media company had with investors.
It was reported that the cast was able to significantly increase its salary for the reality series. When I first heard about the demands, I mused to myself that this was a grand opportunity for Hollywood to say no to minor celebrities. After all, it's just a reality show, folks. Even though Snooki is immensely popular, there are many more Snooki-type individuals out there. Dime-a-dozen comes to mind when thinking of the goofy girl with the poofy coif.
I honestly didn't think it would be that difficult. I mean, come on. Imagine you were the exec in charge of negotiating with Snooki and her cohorts. All you'd have to say is "no." End of story. You find replacements for the franchise, or you build an entirely new franchise. There are so many cool shores around the country. Pick one, hire cheap young talent willing to pretend they're doing real things for a purported reality show that is about as real as the chances are of the Dow hitting 20,000 by the end of the year, and there you go. It's not like Viacom is trying to deduce the weird calculus lurking within the singularity of a black hole.
You can imagine my disgruntlement when I head that Viacom apparently caved (see this video for a summary). No, I'm not kidding. I was really perturbed. Anyone who reads my media commentaries knows I disdain the concept of overly compensating talent. I just don't like it. And I believe this Jersey Shore event is actually important to shareholders. It's important in the sense that it should depress anyone who owns a stock based on the Hollywood business model.
I don't own Viacom, but I do own Disney (DIS). You may own News Corp. (NWS) or maybe Time Warner (TWX). In every case, management is paying too much for talent. Will the situation (no pun intended, believe me) ever change? How can it if Viacom cannot say no to Snooki? Think about it. If Snooki can demand, and get, the money she wants, then you can forget about the top talent ever being convinced that they should take reduced salaries since they aren't the ones putting up the investment capital fueling content generation.
Unfortunately, Hollywood cannot continue on the course it's on. Media entities have had a difficult time reaping the returns they should be reaping from celluloid assets. And I believe that has had a true impact on shareholder value. You wouldn't think reality stars would have much clout. In the end, they do. Sure, it would have been scary to give up the current cast of the Jersey Shore. Why give up a good thing, right? Programmers and producers aren't drawing huge paychecks to play it safe and stay inside a comfort zone. Sure, maybe the salary increases weren't too bad considering the kind of money the series brings in, but let's be real: it's the principle involved. Shareholders should pay attention.
Disclosure: I own Disney; positions can change without notice.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-14-2010 @ 12:44PM
Iridium said...
The issue I have is that MTV is basically a network made to turn trash into millionaires. The cast of Jersey Shore would have a difficult time keeping a minimum wage job in the real world. Yet this cast of disturbed worthless individuals is getting rich acting like gutter trash.
MTV teaches children and young adults that hard work is not the way to economic prosperity, acting like human trash is. Young girls think that acting like Snooki is their ticket to stardom and the riches that some with it.
An attractive girl can already make far more money as a stripper than she ever could going to a good college and trying to find a good paying career job in this economy.
The best thing that could ever happen to this country would be for the cast of Jersey Shore and the entire Viacom executive board to board a plane and crash into a mountain. I would feel very bad for the pilots though since they wouldn't have done anything wrong.
The glorification of trash that started with Jerry Springer has truly turned our society down a very wrong path. In fact it has turned us down a path that inevitably leads to the rise of brutal dictators.
8-14-2010 @ 1:32PM
Dan Barnett said...
Steve,
Leaving aside the hyperbole ("rise of brutal dictators" indeed); it's a question of how VIA values the talent of Snooki & the others. I've never seen the show so I have no ground for judging, but VIA wouldn't have paid the amounts they've agreed to if they didn't feel they'd make the money back, in advertising, in ratings, in spin-off, & etc.
It's the same argument used with ball-players. The numbers may be big; but the Owner feels that he will benefit from the services of the Player even at the agreed amount. So also with the movies. Top talent makes big bucks. It's for the Producer to decide if the talent is "worth it" at the price. The problem is, of course, that there is no way to answer that question in advance. Equally alot more than actor's talent goes into a producting a movie and so talent is not the only determining factor. But those are discussions for another day.
Iridium,
It's called the "free enterprise" system. That's how it works.
8-14-2010 @ 3:34PM
Joseph Leslie said...
Snooki is a walking STD epidemic and the rest of the misfits should be sterilized so that they can't pass on their defective genetics. I will volunteer to be on a reality show about working your a$$ of to make 1/4th of the income that I made 2 years ago. I am a moral, white, college educated, married, heterosexual, who goes to church on Sunday! I pay my bills and speak American English, not Joisy. I would be glad to share my life and my family's day to day experiences. We get up, take the kids to school, go to work and do not engage in drunken, trash talkin situations. We have not been arrested (my wife got a traffic ticket), we are not sexually promiscuous, have not had crappy plastic surgery, don't have tatoos, no illegitimate children and I know I am the Father of all my children.