Funny guys finish last. New information emerged Friday regarding Jay Leno’s mid-August pay cut, widely circulated in the media. According to a detailed report from NBC, the Tonight Show host took a whopping 50 percent cut in his salary—part of an attempt by the network to reduce the show’s enormous $100 million budget. NBC’s entertainment chief, Robert Greenblatt, explained that the show—while still lucrative—simply is not “the cash cow it was in the Johnny Carson days." Still, with a starting salary of $30 million per year, the $15 mil is probably enough to keep the six-foot comedian good and happy.
