Revealed: The staggering salaries of breakfast TV stars
Former Studio 10 television producer, Rob McKnight, has revealed the staggering salaries of breakfast TV stars, as well as his own impressive former yearly wage.
Rob, who most recently worked as executive producer of Channel Ten's morning show Studio 10 and has worked at Channel Seven and Nine previously, was speaking on his podcast TV Blackbox, said he was initially on a salary of $220,000 at Studio 10.
He later landed a $100,000 bonus, increasing his salary up to $320,000, including superannuation.
Talking about the increase, Rob joked: “The CEO said, ‘go and pay off your house.’”
When asked what breakfast TV presenters, like Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson, could be taking home, Rob said the millions reported in the press are fairly accurate.
“You know what I was on, so you can expect they were in the ballpark [figures which have been reported],” he said.
“Don't forget breakfast and morning TV have the potential to make good money. Breakfast TV is reaching more people than prime time.”
Rob’s comments come after Lisa's shock departure from Channel Nine over a salary dispute last October.
At the time, Channel Nine CEO Hugh Marks said he could not offer Lisa a $500k raise on top of the $1.8 million she was earning at the time on the Today show.
“I went to an incredible amount of trouble to build that ($1.8 million) package for her,” he told The Daily Telegraph at the time.
“She wanted $2.3 million. It wasn't a $200,000 shortfall to [Karl Stefanovic's] $2 million magic number. It was $500,000.”
When Lisa joined Channel 10’s The Project, she was replaced on Today by Georgie Gardner, who received a big raise for the new role.
Georgie's salary was increased from $500,000 to $1 million, The Daily Telegraph reported.