Do the guests on late-night talk shows usually get paid for their appearances, and if so, how much? Or is it the opposite, i. e. the celebrities must pay to play, for instance if they want to promote their newest TV show, film, record or book?
Usually not, but it can be done. For most of the guests it’s free publicity and they would be willing pay to get on the show. Sometimes they do pay indirectly in some way with an exchange of favors. The terms of the appearance could also include expenses. I’ve never heard of anyone paying to get on a show, it doesn’t make business sense to the show’s producers, they need ratings, they book guests on that basis, and a guest that wants to pay to get on would have to pay an awful lot.
Yes, they all get union scale for any appearance if they are part of SAG or the equivalent. Non-union members will get an equal amount just to be polite. A crew member gets paid if he or she takes part in a sketch. Audience members don’t.
Expenses are a sometimes thing. If a show really wants someone, they will pay airfare and hotel. Most shows have an arrangement with a local hotel to put up guests anyway. Celebrities on promotion tours are already having their expenses paid by the production company, though. A “civilian” who becomes famous will get all expenses paid. Otherwise there would be huge repercussions online about taking advantage of them.
Nobody pays to get on. That would be a huge scandal.
Exapno is correct about the SAG actors. I forgot about that.
What would union scale be for a typical talk show appearance?
The arrangements with musical groups can get complicated. The record companies exert quite a lot of control.
E.g., if you want X on the show, you also have to book lesser groups Y and Z from the same label.
Labels also frequently pay expenses, etc.
This is why a lot of no name, never going anywhere, semi-garage bands get on TV. Letterman in his later years had a seemingly unending supply of awful groups appearing most nights.
TV network and movie studios also “make arrangements” with talk shows. If you want the Big Star for an upcoming movie, you might have to book the lesser actors as well.
I don’t see any reason why it would be scandalous for the labels to pay to put acts on. It’s no different from product placement. And it’s not really payola.
Those covered up to July 30th of this year. A SAG actor would probably get the $880 day rate.
I think the main reason they don’t want people paying to get on, or getting paid to come on (aside from the SAG rate) is the bookers would be inundated with requests and complaints. In show biz anything anyone does that you don’t like is scandalous, those people are soooooooooo dramatic about everything.
As you mention, it’s just easier to make side deals than to pay someone or receive payment directly. The news programs use that kind of subterfuge to say they never pay for stories.
It’s all about appearances. It would look bad. People want to pretend that the guests are being asked on. Appearances are way more important than reality almost everywhere, but nowhere more so than show biz.
A footnote to SAG. SAG and AFTRA - The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists - merged in 2012. It was hard to get into SAG - you had to be hired on a union production first before you were allowed to join - but AFTRA represented news people, which covers a large range. I remember that a lot of pundits who made regular appearances on the talk circuit would join even though they weren’t officially part of a news organization. I don’t know if the membership requirements were tightened after the merger. Still, I think it’s fair to say that if you see someone on cable regularly they have a union card somewhere on them.
So you had to be hired on a union job to join SAG. But I thought they only hired union members for those jobs? Catch 22?
One way is to work as an extra first under union rules that don’t require SAG membership. Another way is to belong to other unions for performers, musicians often do this. SAG cards are valuable, a couple of my friends hired to do some production work were given roles in a TV show skit because they were there and already were SAG members.
Somewhat. You don’t ever need to be a union member to audition for a role, but if you are chosen for a part, you do (within a certain time frame) have to join the union.
Back in Letterman’s NBC heydays of the late 80s he did a ‘bit’ where he’d have a cute PA on, Bridgette Jackson I think her name was, simply because she was getting married and this way she would make extra money by being on camera. He would have her sit in the guest chair and just do mundane things like reading the list of guests for tomorrow night’s show. Later nights they would have her ‘sing’ a couple of the names or use a little hand puppet while reading, because union rules dictated that she’d be paid more that way. It was really funny because she just seemed embarrassed by the whole thing, she wouldn’t even look into the camera, and when she had the puppet she would just wave it once or twice as unenthusiastically as possible.
Although it didn’t involve payments of any kind, when Leno first took over from Carson in ‘92 and had his crazy, evil agent Helen Kushnick become the show’s producer she caused a big scandal be telling stars’ people that if they appeared on any other show she would refuse to book them on The Tonight Show. Nothing ‘illegal’ about it of course, but it was a huge breach of established TV protocol. This, and other things, eventually got her fired.