Report: Leno Chopped Salary in Half to Tighten Belts at “Tonight Show”
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Kevin Winter/Tonight Show/Getty Images for The Tonight Show(NEW YORK) — Jay Leno agreed to a pretty big hit in some austerity measures aimed at The Tonight Show — to the tune of half his salary, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
It had widely been reported that The Tonight Show with Jay Leno recently laid off about 20 staffers and Leno himself took a pay cut, but just how deep the scissors cut wasn’t known until now.
The Journal says Leno agreed to a $15 million a year cut in an effort to trim the show’s budget and save other jobs. At the same time, Leno re-upped his contract to stay with the show for another two years.
Leno’s new salary will be $15 million a year, the paper notes; his halving his annual paycheck reportedly slashed the show’s budget by 20 percent.
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