Thanks @nottelling for post #44 and many others’ posts after that. I was reading this thread and thinking the very same thing about @GoNoles85’s comment that 95% of women (in later posts, this was downgraded to 75% to 85% percent, LOL) could do Kelly Ripa’s job. I thought of posting along the vein that you did and I’m glad that now others have as well. I am not a TV watcher, but I know who Kelly Ripa is and I have seen the show in the past. It is very easy for @GoNoles85 to imagine that anyone can do Kelly’s job, let alone be of value to the network/producers. When someone does a job like that well, they may make it look like it is easy. But there is definitely a skill set involved. While there are others who could do what Ripa does, surely the majority of folks could not. Also, as far as her not being a “spring chicken,” well, there are many well regarded TV hosts who are not. Just look at Ripa’s former co-host, Regis Philbin. Ripa is not just a pretty face. She does have the skills to do the job and make the show successful. Whether people on TV, movies, athletes, etc. should earn such phenomenal salaries that seem unbalanced in our society is another issue. But not everyone can do these jobs well.
Remember all the fuss with Deborah Norville, Jane Pauley, and Katie Couric? I imagine there is definitely someone waiting in the wings, perhaps plotting, for Ripa’s job.
Let’s say you have ten geese. One of them lays a golden egg each night, but you can’t figure out which one of them it is. Will you slaughter any of them?
That’s what a TV show is like when it’s getting good ratings. What element will you dare to change? So Kelly wants more money–what do you do? What if she’s the goose that is laying those golden ratings? You can’t be sure, so you keep paying her more and more.
More bad TV breakups where the wrong goose was killed -
It amazes me that people are so invested in the lives of people they’ve never met that they feel the need to go gripe about them. And not just once in the venting thread but over the course of several days and several posts.
It’s just mind boggling to me. I don’t care about celebrities- for better or worse. They’re out of my brain as soon as they’re out of my line of vision. shrug
@Toledo I guess each show is catering to a different audience. I like Michael though. I’m just not into their show. The appeal must be for a certain demographic maybe which I’m not a part of. I like Tamron and Hoda and some of the others on the Today show. They represent a diverse cast which might be what appeals to me.
“This thread isn’t really about ripping Ripa as much as it is a slam on any celeb or overpaid jock. Especially when some of the funds for their industry takes resources away from other folks who do normal, unspectacular, but amazing jobs on a daily basis like cops (most of them), K-12 teachers, etc. Look, if you want to worship Ripa and the like go for it. You can also be a fan. I’ll pass.”
While I understand the sentiment, I don’t know how an overpaid celebrity (assuming they are) or a jock takes away from things like cops and such, that doesn’t make much sense. Cops and teachers are paid by the local government, and I can’t see how one affects the other. The only thing I can think of is some of the idiotic deals cities and towns have made for athletic stadiums, where despite all the claims, the city generally ends up the loser (the promised jobs and economic activity generally never materializes, and the city ends up with a large bill), but in terms of the athletes, the fact that someone is making 16 million a year, 20 million a year doesn’t do anything for cops, firefighters or teachers, because they are paid for by the ball teams, that are owned privately. If anything, a show filmed in NYC, like Ripa’s show, actually increase tax revenue, the people working on the show get taxed (if they live in the city or state), the places they buy things do, and so forth.
As far as her being in her position being luck, of course, almost every successful person out there has had significant luck in their lives, the old horatio alger/ayn rand vision of success is simply not true at all or in part, luck plays a large role in things. The kid who makes it in football because there were good programs where he lived, he found great coaches, is luck, as is to a certain extent getting drafted into the NFL and then making it (among other things, not getting injured, which a player can only partially control). Successful musicians also experience luck, to have the support it takes, being discovered by someone, can all be a matter of luck as much as talent or drive or skill. Saying that she is the beneficiary of luck is a duh to me, because all people’s lives are in some part luck, of being the right age to take advantage of something, of being in the right place and time, of having good parents, of having a mentor, luck is there. Likewise, her looks don’t hurt, she works at it (she definitely works out), but a lot of that is genetics, too, if she was 6’2 tall and was big framed, she likely would never get to that position. Even things like charm and charisma are a matter of luck, in that no one has been able to figure out how those come about, environment or nature, it is something that is there. Same with athletic ability, that is luck, too, while you have to work hard to hone those skills, if you don’t have the reflexes and the speed, no matter of hard work is going to get you far.
On the other hand, while it is easy to say you can do her job, you also are leaving out what she needed to do to get there. She probably had to hustle to get the job, to get the jobs before this one, to work towards the goal, auditioning, rehearsing, and figuring out how to reach for her goals, you might think her job is easy, but in all fairness, getting through the hordes of young, attractive women reaching for the same goal is not easy, and the other thing about easy jobs is one of the reasons they appear easy is the person makes it seem like it is easy, that is a skill, too. I have seen musical performances where what they were doing looked so easy, and I know it wasn’t because my son had worked on the same pieces and they were brutal. It is very easy to make fun of sports personalities (especially people that you don’t like) and say “I could do that”, but again, they got to where they are because they were able to beat out other people and also had favorable fan response. They also have to really love what they are doing, they have to know sports to a level most of us wouldn’t care and day in and day out care about it, and put on a show around it. Sure, bunch of guys getting around in a bar talking about sports is very similar, but try doing that as a career, gets tiring after a while…
Doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with what I see in terms of salaries and such, but it is what it is. I find the situation with college football appalling, that conferences are being paid a billion dollars for broadcast rights and schools are paying coaches many millions of dollars a year, making a ton of money out of the program but being classified as tax free (while doing little to help the academic side of the school), but it also is what it is, the networks are willing to pay that and the fans are willing to support it by viewing ESPN and ABC and NBC and whatnot shrug.
I have nothing against Kelly Ripa, I don’t watch the program (the few times I watched it, they had it on in the dentist’s office), and quite honestly her making 20 million doesn’t do anything to my life, so if she can get it, be my guest. If she was some smug idiot going around talking about how special she was because she made 20 million and others less fortunate were simply losers I would be upset, but haven’t heard her say that, doesn’t seem to be that kind of person unlike a Kurt Schilling who is a first class delta bravo, in spades.
The college sports issue is disgusting.
Some of the athletes are dirt poor while the schools and head coaches can make millions.
I do not care how much she makes. For some weird reason I cannot stand her. I got to switch channels when her commercials are running, I have the same type of feeling for some actors also who make much more than Kelly. Whatever others are making is none of my biz, I am happy for them. If they want to share, I will accept some $$$ from them or anybody else, but nobody will want to share their mils, I am sure.
One thing I know that if they keep her on the show it must make the business sense to have her. This tells me that she makes whole lot for them, much more then her mils and replacing her is very risky. I can understand that. But as I said, do not count on me watching her, it is like rubbing a sand paper on my skin, pretty painful.
I may not be making my case very well so let me try again. I may not even have a case other than one guy, me, thinks Ripa is seriously overpaid. Again, please don’t lecture me about market economies. I get it. That sure as heck doesn’t mean she is worth it. It could mean, as I said, her employers are profoundly stupid.
So, #66, let me try again to make some sort of point about how our celebrity driven culture siphons funds away from the professions and people that should be making more. Please picture me as a cranky old man, a guy that says weird things about political revolutions, a guy who has a New England accent and wears wrinkled suits three sizes too big, I am in no way shape or form referring to anyone currently running for office, but I am hunched over and whining and complaining and any similarity is merely a coincidence and only applies to this thread only.
I’ll start by defining celebrities as professional entertainers, coaches, athletes, musicians, etc. that are making millions of dollars every year. The fact that so many people willingly worship, fawn over and transfer funds to celebrities is a little freaking weird. That is exhibit A. I know quite a few people who rarely leave the house without being dressed in sort sort of NFL jersey that costs more than you might believe. Why? I have no idea. I guess they are like cavemen and cavewomen who equate it with qualities they admire like speed and strength. It is like wearing a bear skin. That, and the tickets they buy, and the TV deals that they fund, indirectly, goes into the pockets of celebrities and coaches and professional jocks. That money would be directed elsewhere if we didn’t have such a celebrity obsessed culture. I’ve already cited the obscene way that communities help pay for the stadiums of teams they don’t want to lose which then drives more revenues to the jocks and owners. Please don’t act like those resources doesn’t take out of the pockets of other publicly funded workers like K-12 teachers and cops b/c it darn sure does.
I have no idea how many people in this country are poor or don’t even eat right every day but it is pretty bad. Yet, they clap like wild indians and hand over their money hand over foot the minute they see a celebrity. I don’t get that at all.
And, before I forget, I love it when someone with 28,000+ posts here accuses me of being obsessed with Ripa based on one thread. Pulllllleezze.
Now, nothing, I’ve said so far explains why Ripa is overpaid or doesn’t deserve her $20M. She isn’t a jock. No one has to watch her show. I watched 5 whole minutes before I reached for the remote the other day. I stayed on Steve Harvey’s show until I had to go to work. The only things I know about Ripa I heard from watching entertainment tonight or TMZ Live. As far as I know, the show was just as good when Regis and Kathie Lee were on it. No one gabs better than Kathie Lee. Ripa lucked out, like Ringo Star, into a great gig. Any other of thousands of other starlets could have done just as well given the opportunity. 95% luck, 5% talent. I call 'em like I see 'em.
One last thing, then I actually have to work. One class. Then go home. Anyway, exhibit B. The resident of the USA makes $400K a year. Ripa makes $20M a year. Yeah, she is SLIGHTLY overpaid.
The question is - deep in the dark recesses of our lizard brain, do we need this stuff? Would we kill each other more without football rivalries? Would we follow other false idols without our current TV false idols?
Just wondering…
And yes, I agree that is enormous diversion of wealth and resources and it can’t help but take away from public resources. Especially your sports analogy. A small minority of people in DC were screaming about the city finding money for a new stadium for the Nationals when the school system continued to go begging.
@GoNoles85 Well, now you are back to the issue of the inequality of pay in our country. That is one issue.
But at the end of long post #69 on that issue, you return at the very end to calling the person who holds this very high paying job as 95% luck, and 5% talent. That is what I (and some others) take issue with, in addition to several posts where you claim almost anyone can do Ripa’s job. Do I believe there are others who could do her job as well as she does? Yes, indeed. Do I think almost anyone can do it? No, I do not. But I also do not believe that 95% of her hiring is luck and only 5% is talent. And I’m not just talking of Ripa, but of other performing artists and athletes (as you bring up). Sure, luck plays a part! That is true in many professions, and especially when there are too many people vying for these positions than can possibly be hired, and yet are quite capable. But way more than 5% is talent (and I’ll add in drive, experience, etc.). And I say this also as the parent of a non-famous professional performing artist. I would be insulted for her if people thought her successes to date were mostly about luck and not talent or not her skills or not her drive, initiative, creativity, experience, and worth ethic. Luck certainly is a factor, but it is a smaller factor than those other things.
The producers picked Ripa to hire. They didn’t go eeny meeny miny mo from some group of “starlets,” as you call them. They picked her for a reason. They felt she could deliver what they wanted in a TV host. Currently, a Tony winning Broadway producer is about to commission my kid to create an original musical (that she also will perform in). Why is this producer paying her all this money to create something that may or may not be a success? Because this person has faith in my kid to deliver, based on what he/she knows of my D’s skill set. My kid is lucky. But I don’t think luck will play the biggest part in this one current deal, let alone most of the others she has negotiated up until now. Just one example. It is not in the mega bucks category of Miss Ripa, a celebrity, but the point is the same in terms of performing artists. Not just anyone can do it. And luck is not the prominent factor in success, but just one of many.
I did not make my case clearly either.
Who gets paid what amount is NOT decided in the voting booth. It is decided by a business. If it is deemed by the business that someone makes them much more than they are being paid, they keep the job, for whatever the pay, $20 mils or $200k or only $30k a year. The way to change it is to ask for more or less. If one asks for more, then it will be evaluated if certain employee is contributing enough to the bottom line to be paid more. I do not know anybody who ever asked for less. You cannot make any person to ask for less. You can only do it yourself at your own job if you feel that you are paid too much and not bringing enough to the table to be paid that much. Apparently, it is not the case with Kelly.
And nobody in a world could decide what the next person needs. Some need another car, and others are willing to pay for the football tickets and third is dreaming about the diamond ring. If you ask me, do I need a diamond ring that may cost say, $10K? I do not! But does it give me right to criticize those who do? No, it is not that I feel like criticizing them. So, if they pay her $20 mils, that means that there are enough people out there who are actually watching. So, here you go, if you really care to stop her making $20mils, convince everybody who is watching to stop watching and the show will be cancelled. Very easy solution!
@gonoles85:
Outside the stadium issue (which does divert public funds, since even thought they are paid for by bonds, the interest on those bonds crowds out the budget), I doubt very much the money sports fans spend on jerseys and tickets, or the money advertisers spend on Ripa’s show, or the money paid to Ripa and Athletes affects teachers and cops and such, it would be a very tenuous hold at best. One of the reasons stadiums are such a boondoggle when publicly funded is because with major sports, the biggest chain of revenue is from TV revenue, whether it is the sports channels teams often own, or the revenue media companies pay them to broadcast the games. If Kelly Ripa makes 100k a year or 5 million, or 20 million, the city will have as many teachers and cops and fireman, since the city does not pay her salary. if cities and towns didn’t pay for stadiums, then a player making 20 million dollars doesn’t affect teachers and cops and fireman one whit, and in fact, if the team is successful, the players may live in the city and pay income and property taxes, the team itself might pay taxes (though with the Jets and Giants, for example, they play in NJ, and any taxes they pay would go to NJ, whether local, property taxes (assuming the land they play on, which is owned by a state authority, actually pays property taxes on the stadium I don’t know).
In the end, unless we look at stadium boondoggles (which have hurt municipalities, there is no doubt), celebrities and athletes and music stars and so forth salaries have little to no negative impact on ‘needed’ services, since their funding comes from a totally different pool, bad tax policy, deciding not to pay into pension plans to balance budgets, idiotic tax abatements on 10 million dollar apartments (yes, virginia, that eyesore of a tower on park ave, that is like 100 stories tall, with apartments as much as 50 million dollars, is part of the NYC tax abatement program, go figure), those do affect spending on needed services. The argument that people who in effect are paying the athletes salaries, or the music stars, would instead use that money for ‘good’ is a non starter, people will spend money on other ‘junk’ rather than voluntarily send more money into the state/city or donate to funds that are used to help attract teachers to the inner city, it isn’t going to happen.
Do I think a tv personality is worth 20 million a year? Not really, because I don’t watch those shows and don’t care, but again to their bosses it is worth it.
I also agree with other posters, while luck plays a role, sometimes a pretty big one, in a successful person, it isn’t the only thing or the dominant thing necessarily (there are people who you could probably say their success was pure luck, who literally stumble into something, the guy who lends someone else 100 bucks for a piece of the other guys invention, and it becomes a hit for example), but success is a combination of things. Someone else mentioned a professional musician (non famous), some of what happens to them is luck, if they are a soloist and happen to be heard by an agent who likes them, that can be luck, the person who auditions for an orchestra on a day when they are looking for a certain sound and they have it, that is luck, but in those cases luck was one piece of the chain, a critical one (agent isn’t at the recital in question cause they have a cold, person doesn’t get the agent; person auditions and sneezes and causes a misplay, could blow the audition, or if they are looking for someone with a warm sound and their is more hard, see ya), but small, because to get that agents attention or to catch the ear of the audition panel, the person had to go through all kinds of training to nail it, and had to persist through years of self doubts, years when they didn’t seem to be going anywhere, and so forth. I don’t know how much of Kelly Ripas success was do to luck, being in the right place and time, maybe that she clicked with Regis, but she had to have the kind of talents it takes to get an audience to like you, to make guests feel at home, to make people want to watch you (if it was so easy, how come so many talk shows, with people who otherwise seem to be competent, fail?), and I would bet in her case there was a whole chain of things she had to do to get there, whether it was acting, whether it was working other shows, etc…it looks easy, but if you have ever been interviewed on TV, you would know it is extremely hard to be comfortable under the lights and such.
@ 72,
Well put, actually. But the difference is your daughter is creating a show and that does require talent not only to create but to perform. Ripa is talking about her left toe and what she ate for breakfast. Big difference. Pure, blind, kiss the ground you walk on luck in Ripa’s case. I’ll say it again. Any of thousands of starlets could do that job and do it well. The ratings were just as good when Kathie Lee was there. Ripa gets paid for being cute and perky. She has more in common with the hated Kardashiens than she does with your daughter IMHO.
And yes I am talking about income inequality.
It is free enterprise economics when a pharma company, with a patent, charges whatever the hell it wants for a pill or medical treatments. But it ain’t right when they charge $8,000 a pill. It is legal. It is supply and demand. An dit is messed up.
It is free enterprise economics when the executives of a company make 200 times what the factory workers make. It is legal and approved by a compensation committee. But it damned sure smells bad.
Nick Saban is the best coach in college football. He makes north of $7M a year to run the program. There is plenty of supply, lots of other coaches can coach football, I damn sure could, not as good as Nick, fine, but neither me nor Nick is worth $6M a year to coach a sport regardless of what kind of revenues the football program generates. It isn’t like major big time, deep pocket football programs can’t find qualified candidates.
Saban is a poor example of something being wrong b/c he is so good. But pick any D1 program and you will find a coaching staff raking in millions and somehow I find that to be ridiculous even though I am a fan of the sport.
It all gets back to the people who support it, one way or the other, and yet live in poverty and in communities with negligent police services, underfunded public schools, etc. etc.
Now, I have no idea how to pay the fat assed company exec less and give it to the schools but I sure as heck see a problem. Not all of it is Ripa’s fault but some of it is. I didn’t even have a class tonight. I’m all dressed up for a Monday night only class. It is Wed night. What a damned shame.
@ 74,
Somebody has to pay Ripa’s salary. If it is advertisers, then that means I pay for it when I buy toothpaste or cereal. If we were a less celebrity driven culture Ripa would make $250,000 a year and my toothpaste would be $.05 per tube cheaper.
Thanks.
Rips and her Dh run a production company. Is that OK with you?
I don’t see how it is Ripa’s fault that she is paid a lot. Like it or not (obviously not), positions such as hers seem to command an obscene amount of money. She has no obligation to turn it down. Even if she did, her salary would then not go to public works and so on.
I don’t agree with you whatsoever that there are not skills involved or talent involved in what Ripa does. Like someone else posted, people who do a job like hers quite well, can make it look easy. Not everyone can think or talk on their feet in front of millions of people where what you say may be scrutinized. She has to be entertaining, funny, know the right questions to ask, and speak well. She was formerly an actor, and so she didn’t just stride into a role as a talk show host. It doesn’t matter if the content may be inane topics and not world issues, she or others in positions like hers, need to be articulate and entertaining, if that is the sort of thing someone wants to watch. It is a live show and so that is another element (such as live theater, something my own kid does professionally and so I know that a bit better) and it is not like mistakes get a do over. Also, as someone else pointed out, not everyone has the “it” factor that makes people want to watch or can hold others’ attention. This is true of stage actors too. Look, I’m not even really talking of Ripa, since I don’t watch TV, but more about your notion that anyone can do it and she gets to do it due to sheer luck.
I think that it’s really interesting that the OP seems to worship the Kardashian women but is critical of someone like Kelly Ripa, who like her or not, apparently has enough valuable skills that she’s never had to do a sex tape to become famous. According to Forbes, Kim Kardashian pulled in $53 million last year. That should make everyone sick to their stomachs.
I’ve seen Ms. Ripa and although I’m not a regular viewer of her program, I know she competed against a lot of people who were much more well known than she was before she won her position. In addition, she has been in the business for a long time and seems to have worked hard for her success (in spite of not being a “spring chicken”). I’m sure she has made the Disney Company/ABC a hefty return on their investment in her or she’d have been gone from her seat years ago.
How anyone can justify the attention and money paid to any Kardashian and complain that Kelly Ripa doesn’t deserve her hard-earned career really baffles me.