I think there are two different arguments going on here at the same time, one a more broad based discussion, one targeted to Ms. Ripa herself:
1)The idea that it is ridiculous that someone is paid 20 million a year to host a talk show, while people who perform notable service make a fraction of that. Do I understand that feeling? Yep, in these days of extreme pay, I am sympathetic to that. I think it is ridiculous that CEO’s of companies in the US are making typically 10-15 million a year in compensation, that the typical CEO is making 400, 500 times what the typical worker does, when not lot ago it used to be 30. I don’t buy the arguments that CEO’s are a rare breed, that there is a limited pool, that somehow they are now superstars, that is BS, the job is basically the same as when they were making 30 times. What did change was the manner they pay CEO’s, they make 90+ % of their income in stock grants, which has a lot of problems around it (among other things, it promotes stock price above all else in the short term, which causes all kinds of problems). Part of the income gap is explained by this, most workers do not get significant pay in the form of stock, and it is one of the reasons that CEO pay has soared while everyone else’s have flatlined or plummeted.
Likewise, the price of performers does affect ordinary people (performer meaning a musical act, a sports star), because that translates into higher prices for people, at a time when their income is not keeping up. Baseball teams are starting to see this, ticket prices and concession prices have gotten so high it is ridiculous, and now MLB and the NFL are starting to worry if their televised games are going to feature empty stadiums. Some teams have countered this by building smaller stadiums full of corporate boxes, but the problem with that is it will look like crap on tv to a stadium that seems empty. On the other hand, the owners are reaping even more huge rewards, so they are just as guilty (Goodell’s goal with the NFl is to basically double revenue from 9 billion, while making sure most of that goes to the owners). Not saying the pre free agency baseball was great, then it all went to the owners while the players were paid peanuts. However, there is an argument to be made the players are overpaid and that is hurting the fans.
2)Then we have the concept that Ms. Ripa is paid 20 million a year and doesn’t even have talent to justify any kind of salary.Leaving out the amount, I think that it is unfair to paint it all as luck, that she is just some good looking woman making faces in front of the camera who got lucky. Did luck play a role? Sure, given the competition for those kind of jobs, there might be let’s say 2000 women out there who can do the job and more importantly, are actively working towards getting those jobs (if we say 50,000 women could potentially do the job doesn’t matter, if 48k have no interest in doing it). First of all, to even get considered for the job, she had to work her way up through the minor leagues, she had to get jobs at a lower level, she had to work on her presentation and get comfortable with doing what she does, she had to hustle to find the right agent, she had to submit to auditions, and more importantly, she had to have a thick skin when rejection happened, and she was competing against a lot of people who were just as driven.There was some luck there, too, that she had chemistry with Regis (as Strahan did with her), she could have done 10,000 things right and if she didn’t click with him, that would have been the end of it.
Maybe because I am in the music world through my son, but I heard for years sneering at ‘popular’ music, how they were overnight successes, how compared to classical music or dance they were all ‘overnight wonders’, and that is a load of crap. Music acts that make it, unless they are a manufactured pop act a la Mili vanilli or the pop tarts they put out there today, have gone through a long, hard period, the musicians play in multiple bands, they struggle, they play dive bars, they hone their craft, spend a lot of time on the road, finding the right mix of people and so forth. Luck does come along, a talent agent sees them, another band hears they need a new guitarist and give them a sack of letters from perspective guitarists and they pull one out that turns out to be a gem, but the rest of it is hard work.
I don’t know the specifics of Ms. Ripa’s story, but I would bet that from some period of time before someone decided to audition her to replace Kathy Lee with Regis, I can guarantee you she had to slog through a lot to get there, it is the nature of how those things work. I think her talent is there, for the job she is doing, if it weren’t they would have hired one of the other many thousands of women out there hustling to find their dream, and the fact that she connects with the audience, worked well with her co hosts, and has lasted as long as she has tells the story. And if you don’t think that is talent, think of all the people who are otherwise talented who washed up on tv shows like that, Bryant Gumbal flamed out on the today show, Jane Pauley didn’t do so well, lot of very talented people bomb out shrug…sure, I could take Kelly’s place (thought given she is like a third my size probably not her wardrobe lol), I could kibbitz with Strahan or whoever, I could talk to the guests, laugh at stupid jokes, and would probably see the audience share go down to levels not seen since the last time they tried to air a debate in the house of representatives about pork subsidies lol.
I have already posted that reasonably there are others that could do her job as effectively, but the majority of the population could not, as well as be of the same value to the network.