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When last season of American Idol added fourth judge Kara DioGuardi, many speculated that Kara’s addition was a potential test to see if she could replace Paula Abdul in case Paula decided to leave the show (because a woman can only replace another woman, obviously). Now, Paula’s embroiled in difficult contract negotiations that leave her status on the show uncertain. Her manager has complained to the press that Paula is being lowballed - she makes far less than fellow judge Simon Cowell and host Ryan Seacrest, and she’s holding out for more money.
As an avid Idol fan, I could go two ways with this. One is that Ryan and Simon both provide more value to the show than she does - Simon’s also a producer and helped create the show, and while it seems like hosting a reality show is easy, compare Ryan with a lesser TV host and you’ll see how talented he is at moving the show along and smoothing transitions. Ryan’s the only host, but Paula is one of three - or four - judges. Besides, her commentary is often rambling or irrelevant - do we really care that you like someone’s personality or outfit when they can’t freaking sing? Part of me thinks she should be grateful to Idol for resurrecting her career and making her a pop culture icon. After all, would she have had her reality show, jewelry line, endorsement deals, or other side gigs if she hadn’t made her Idol-fueled comeback? I doubt it.
On the other hand, there’s the Randy Jackson factor.
Randy Jackson is more useless as a judge than Paula is. Even when Paula’s comments aren’t about singing, she’s usually funny (intentionally or unintentionally) and can give a good sound bite when she needs to. Randy, on the other hand, just repeats the same variations of “yo, dawg” and “you can SANG” to the point where I just tune him out entirely. While I sometimes get annoyed by Paula’s randomness, I often forget Randy is there entirely. The salary disclosure I’d most like to see is his - if what Paula makes is comparable to Randy, then I think it’s fair. If he’s making more than her, then I would definitely cry sexism. Kara’s too much of a new force to compare her and Paula, but Paula and Randy negotiated have been on the show the same number of years and have basically the same job. Interesting that he’s the one whose salary isn’t being reported on right now.
What do you think?
My guess is that Randy and Paula make around the same amount of money, but it would be interesting to see if there was a difference. AI assisted Paula with her comeback, but she's greedy, especially since Simon makes around $30M. Didn't she make enough by being a diva pop icon?
Well I just hate that Kara. We have American Idol parties every week during the season and every week I say, "I want to punch that girl in the face."
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I think the Paula Abdul thing is just a publicity stunt - and a good one at that. They can't get rid of her. She's just too much of a loose canon to get rid of. I LOVE it when she shows up wasted. That's much more interesting than Kara's pontificating about how much she knows about music. Yawn.
And this is not a feminist issue, it's not. Paula isn't getting paid less because she's a chick - it's because she's an idiot. And there are no gender barriers to being an idiot.
By the way, I did really like your post here.
From an HR perspective (I'm a former recruiter) a lot of the salary disparity I see with men and women in similar positions happens at the beginning, when the offer is negotiated. Unfortunately, women do not tend to negotiate hard, and your entry offer is where you have the best room to negotiate. Once you start the job, your next raises are pegged to your current salary, so if a man and woman start out with a differential (b/c the man negotiated and the woman didn't) it just gets compounded over time. So the fact that Paula and Randy have different salaries now might reflect what happened from the very beginning -- b/c Paula didn't negotiate then, b/c Randy had more leverage to start, etc. It could be a compounding error rather than outright sexism.
I think it's good that paula has another person to stand up against the guys with. She sure does make some off the wall comments sometimes but really knows her stuff. I'm trying to think back of when she ever bad mouthed anyone on the show other than saying I'm sorry, or something along those lines. I really like Kara and feel she is maybe over qualified for the job. If all the 4 judges were doing is the same work then that is correct they deserve equal pay, but in reality simon does a bit more than the other judges so makes more.
SusanKart wrote
-And this is not a feminist issue, it's not. Paula isn't getting paid less because she's a chick - it's because she's an idiot. And there are no gender barriers to being an idiot.-
I Cosign this.
Randy and Paula are definitely comparable in the value of their comments, but I think Randy has the edge in value.
Paula is very predictable and usually leans toward the gentle side- which is not necessarily evil, but often boring. In fact, I sometimes thinks that Simon reacts nastier than he otherwise might, simply to counter Paula's excessive syrupyness.
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