Archive: Opinions

It was just over a year ago that CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the Late Night television show would be receiving $5 million to renovate the Ed Sullivan Theatre.  Additionally the show would be eligible for another $11 million in tax credits over the next five years.  The total: a potential $16 million taxpayer dollars, and all CBS has to do is keep Late Night in New York, keeping 200 jobs in the city.

My question is, can't a major television network with a hit show afford to pay for its own studio?  Lansing's School Business Administrator Mary June King told me the other day that between Governor Patterson's 'Deficit Reduction' and the later Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) that our state representatives failed again to get rid of last session, the Lansing School District alone has been stiffed  $5,419,528 since the 2009-10 school year, money it will never retrieve.  Last school year the district was out $450,000.

According to the Los Angeles Times late night shows like Late Night or NBC's The Tonight Show cost $1.5 million to $2.5 million a week to produce five years ago.  Time Magazine reported that top names like Letterman and Jay Leno got $30 million and between $20 to $25 million respectively.  Jimmy Fallon is thought to receive an annual $12 million in his first year as Tonight Show host.  Johnny Carson pulled down $25 million in 1980.  Adjusted for inflation that would equal $72 million today.  Colbert will receive an annual 4.6 million in his first three years, a good $1.4 million less than his Colbert Report salary.  Producers got about $300,000 per year, writers between $3,500 and 10,000 per week and talent bookers between $3,000 and $6,000 a week.  The band could cost $1 million per year.  And of course the camera operators, producers, lighting and sound technicians and support staff has to be paid, on top of expenses like travel costs for guests.

It will cost $28,370,000 to produce next year of school in Lansing.  That is more than one year of Late Night should cost, but it pays for one of the biggest employers in Lansing, plus the side effect of 1,200 or so kids getting educated.  The Lansing schools are 100% guaranteed to stay in New York State, and they don't need a $5 million grant to renovate the Middle School Auditorium.

Originally named the Hammerstein Theatre when it was built around 1925, the Ed Sullivan Theatre had a few different names before CBS leased it in 1936 to be used for radio broadcasts.  It became a television studio in 1950, around which time the Ed Sullivan Show and other programs moved in.  The Beatles' first television appearance was famously hosted by Ed Sullivan there in 1964.  The building was also used as a night club.  The Merv Griffin Show, What's My Line, To Tell The truth and Password also called the theater home.  CBS bought the building for $4.5 million in 1993 to house Late Night with David Letterman, who broadcast there until this year.

Over the years CBS has spent plenty of its own money to produce TV shows, and made a bundle doing so.  The Colbert Report was broadcast from New York City.  This tells me that Steven Colbert probably lives there, and would probably have kept his new show there as well.  And compared with other late night hosts, it looks like the network is stiffing Colbert, which means they are spending even less on his show.  Was there a real threat that it would move to LA?  If it had, wouldn't some other show have moved into the theater?

I can't imagine by any stretch of the imagination how giving money and tax breaks to CBS is in the taxpayers' best interest.  What Governor Cuomo should have done was to give the money to the network on the condition that CBS pay the Gap Elimination money back to the schools.  Mr. Moonves, please make out your check for $450,000 to 'Lansing Central School District' and write 'Tax Deductable Donation' in the memo field.

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