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The next host of the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” — comedian Cedric the Entertainer — is taking an unbelievable 80 percent pay cut to get the job, according to inside sources.
Cedric — who is on the verge of signing a deal to replace Meredith Vieira — will be paid a paltry — in traditional TV terms, at least — $1.5 million a year, the sources say.
Vieira was paid an estimated $9 million a year when she quit the show last month after 11 years.
It’s an unmistakable sign that daytime TV is no longer the Fort Knox of TV that turned Oprah Winfrey into a billionaire and allowed “Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek to buy his own vineyard.
ABC let it be known early that it was planning to sharply reduce the salary it paid for a new host.
“They just realized they didn’t have to spend that kind of money anymore,” said the insider. “Whoever wanted the job was going to have to take a haircut.”
Money — and the lack of it — has been at the bottom of a number of high-profile job changes.
Two years ago, Regis Philbin decided to quit his morning show, “Live with Regis and Kelly,” when the network insisted that he take a pay cut from his reported $18 million salary.
A year before the end of Katie Couric’s big money deal with CBS to anchor the evening news, she was told she should expect a much smaller pay check next time around.
Even after jumping to ABC last year as a daytime talk show host, her salary had fallen from $15 million a year to less than $10 million, experts says.
Hollywood agents have been grumbling about what they considered a low-ball salary for “Millionaire” — and the network’s refusal to budge, another source confirms.
“They said they were looking for ‘a Steve Harvey type’ for the job,” said an agent, who asked to remain anonymous because he still does business with the network.
Harvey, also a comedian, has helped revive the old war-horse game show “Family Feud” in the ratings.
ABC has declined to confirm anything until the deal with Cedric (real name: Cedric Antonio Kyles) is signed.