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But what does Tracy Grimshaw earn?

A Current Affair speculates on rival salaries but avoids answering the bleedingly obvious.

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A Current Affair last night got stuck into the annual story of TV star salaries.

Mel and Kochie, Larry and Kylie, Rebecca Gibney, The Project team, Bert, Adam Hills -they all came under the spotlight.

But it declined to detail Tracy Grimshaw’s salary. Instead as reporter Ben McCormack teased us, the screen went blank and Grimshaw was seen at her desk holding a plug saying “Nice try Benny boy… I told you not to go there.” It was a cheeky way out of the bleeding obvious.

ACA also avoided the salaries of Today, 60 Minutes and Nine News presenters (to name a few).

The problem with this kind of story is that, in my experience, it is largely speculation or based on false figures reported by someone before them. Phony figures are also leaked to the press in order to boost someone’s standing during contract negotiation.

Whenever I have consulted various Heads of Publicity to confirm these kinds of numbers, several have conceded even they are not privy to this kind of information. It is a confidential figure between a star’s agent and management. Such information certainly isn’t divulged to co-stars.

Take the widely reported Seven breakfast shows salaries.

Last year Larry Emdur told TV Tonight, “There was a lot of talk. But you’d need to divide it by 2 and then by 8 again. There’s been so much crap written about me over the years that it’s laughable, most of it.

“Around contract time people start throwing stuff out there. Figures, positions in the network, job satisfaction questions, looking for other things… those things are little landmines set up by various people throughout the place to blow up situations. It’s a game that networks play all the time. But I’ve always kept a pretty low profile on that.”

Melissa Doyle also said, “I remember an article a couple of years ago that said I was outraged at what Kochie was earning. I wouldn’t know what Kochie’s earning!

“It’s all speculation, but people have an appetite for that stuff now. I love reading about Hollywood stars as much as the next person. It’s human nature.

“I’m mortified at a salary which is printed in the paper that I’m supposedly earning when I’m not earning anything near that. I’m the sort of person that gets embarrassed by that stuff. I know some people love to talk up things like that, but I don’t.

“I don’t earn that sort of money. The numbers are wrong. But what can I do? I can deny it all I like and people will believe what they read.”

Finally we come to Paul Henry on a big salary with a low rating show in Breakfast. These are bonafide facts.

I was present in a room when Henry confirmed he was on a million dollar contract. But I believe everyone has misinterpreted this.

Henry has never been asked how long his contract is for. The standard is 3 years. So he may well be on $333,000 a year and not the widely reported $1m.

Which brings us back to the question Nine never answered. What does Tracy Grimshaw earn please?

13 Responses

  1. I hope she is earning peanuts but i figure she is earning a lot. She isn’t as good as people make her out to be. She asks the most stupid questions and hosts one of the worst show in the country. Matt White hosts the other one.

  2. Yeah it seems like just last ACA did a similar story.

    I remember then they did mention the Today team saying Lisa was on around 600k and Karl roughly on 700k

    This time though they spoke about Hugh Sheridan from Rafters saying he is on 650k… well that may be the new recent contract but I know from friends of his that when he started he was on no way near that. A bit like Larry and divide by 2 and then by 8 again was more like it.

    R.E Paul Henry.. I remember the million dollar figure was in New Zealand dollars. Why has that fact continued to be over looked?

  3. @buddah you are in a serious daze of you think TT us any better than ACA they are identical and at times even run the same story at the same time each with their own trashy spin plugged into it.
    The project is a much better alternative

  4. I think it is foolish terrain for them to tackle at all! If they were never going to explore the salaries of their own stars – which they never would – why even start with all that scuttlebutt. I agree with Andrew’s comment – I don’t want to know how much they earn. Whatever it is – it is bound to be less than the well publicised U.S counterparts. It is further muck raking that diminishes whatever integrity and dignity that Tracey et al might still have. She is a good presenter and journo, like Ray Martin before her – why oh why does she continue to endorse this bottom of the barrel current affairs. Oh that’s right, we come back to the money!

  5. @buddha: I expect Seven/TT will as we speak be preparing to return fire with their own “unbalanced” report taking aim at Nine. No doubt Mr Stefanovic, Ms Grimshaw, Mr McGuire and even Hamish And Andy will be potential targets. Possibly even a Ms Kruger who jumped from Seven to Nine.

    Personally, though, who gives a rats what these people are paid? That’s for their employers to worry about, why should we care?

  6. how interesting that the most overated and most overpaid tv hack eddy maguire was overlooked by ACA reportedly on three million and Tracey grimshaw is reportedly on one million. very poor form by ACA omitting most of its own on air people

  9. To think Kochie is on $1 mill is absurd! I know he’s a financial wiz so maybe he gets that amount from his other money making schemes?

    Larry on a mil too, I guess the more money you make the bigger douche you are.

  10. The report was churlish and simply there for taking a pot shot at Seven. Grubby tabloid TV “journalism” not done well. It was totally unbalanced.

    No mention was made of Eddie McGuire’s salary as a presenter nor what he earned as CEO of Nine. In PBL’s annual report of 2007 his salary was listed as $3.74mil and in the previous year he was paid $4.54mil.

    Depending on which report you read, Eddie’s mate Sam Newman is reputedly on between $800k & $1mil.

    Their newsreaders in Sydney are reputedly on $600k+ and let’s not forget Karl Stefanovic’s salary. How is it ok to mention Kochie’s salary and not Karl’s? What would Nine have been paying for Lisa McCune all those years on Sea Patrol?

    Whatever they are paying Tracey – it must be good for her to stay (she at least has some serious journalistic abilities) – because most journos with some shred of credibility would have picked up their reputations and walked away from introducing the trash that ACA runs “story” after “story” every night.

    TT isn’t much better journalistically nor content-wise, although sometimes they manage to rise above the mud that ACA lives in.

    I find that if I watch these two shows (and I watched ACA last night) I generally feel the need to go have a shower!

  11. A whole lot less judging by the stupid question she asked One Direction last night – i.e. (paraphrased) ‘would you be looking for a wife when you tour Australia next’.

    How dumb is that? It’s the equivalent of ‘how do you like Australia’ the minute anyone arrives in the country.

    Really Tracy.

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