Sale of the Century: Syndicated Winner's Board

[BrandonFG]

Dunno about current salaries; IIRC, Drew got $5M or so when he took over TPiR back in '07, but I dunno how that was structured.

Chris C. noted that Allen Ludden made $4,000 a week on Password Plus in 1979, so I imagine Jim's salary on Card Sharks was slightly less.

Wiki says (go with me here) that Chuck Woolery was making $65K a year on Wheel and wanted 500K. The article cites a 2007 interview with Woolery, who said 500K was more on par with what other hosts of the era made. I read elsewhere (might've been that Come On Down book from the late-80s) that he was making more like 350K.

So I'm guessing anywhere between 200-500K in the early-80s. A few million now. Then again, I doubt your comedian-turned-host is making Trebek or Sajak money, just like I doubt Bill Rafferty or Peter Tomarken (great as they were) pulled Barker or Richard Dawson money.

[TLEberle]

Curt Alliaume's Game Shows '75 website says (and I have no reason to believe he'd make it up): Chuck was earning $300,000 per annum in 1981 and wanted a raise to $500,000. Merv Griffin was willing to go to $375,000 and thus Pat Sajak gets a new gig.

I think it was in one of the many Uncle John's Bathroom Readers that Ray Combs was earning $800,000 per year at the zenith of Family Feud's popularity on CBS. Another "I think I read" that Regis was earning $250,000 an episode at one point on Millionaire, but it could be a misplaced decimal point or I just remembered something out of whole cloth, and Harry Eisenberg's book sez that Alex was pulling down $500,000 annually as host/producer of America's Favorite Answer and Question Show. For the time period where he was doing double duty for Mark Goodson, he might have earned half again as much.

Jim Perry would be making decent money as host of Card Sharks and Sale of the Century and considering the parity of the Canadian dollar his work on Definition was probably enough for him to buy a twelve-pack at Tim Horton's.

[SuperSweeper]

Did Jim host any pilots during the early '90s, aside from the Goodson lottery pilot that Winc. posted a few months ago? 

[Kevin Prather]

$250k an episode for Regis isn't too far off. It was reported at $20 million a year. That might figure out to more than $250k even.

[TLEberle]

That would mean he was doing eighty shows a year, which would have been the period when it was on twice a week as opposed to when it was the equivalent of an hour-long daily. Thank you for the corroboration.

[JasonA1]

Did Jim host any pilots during the early '90s, aside from the Goodson lottery pilot that Winc. posted a few months ago?

Yes. Right after $ale (1989/90 IIRC) he did a Wolpert pilot called "The Brainy Bunch." He also did another lottery game for what was then Pearson called "Wanna Bet?" A bit of a dagger for us fans, it used the set from the failed 1996 "Card Sharks" pilot with Tom Green, putting it in the same time frame. Like a lot of hosts, I don't think Jim made an entirely conscious decision to stop, but quietly retired as the work dried up.

-Jason

[dale_grass]

Like a lot of hosts, I don't think Jim made an entirely conscious decision to stop, but quietly retired as the work dried up.

That's what I was kinda wondering, if he didn't retire as much as 'ran out of work'.

[TLEberle]

And more's the pity; he had what amounts to four solid hits, each of which showcased a different part of the host's toolbox. For example, had he been chosen to host Trump Card you'd probably forget that it was just questions-and-answers all the way through with little else to prop it up.