POOR old Carol Vorderman eh? The show which made her a star loses half its viewers and she's asked to take a paycut. From £1.2 million to around £100,000.
For that £100,000, she'd have to (according to the Mail on Sunday) have to do 40 days work, filming around five episodes at a time.
Being no Carol Vorderman myself, I can't rattle off the answer for you as to how much that is per shift - but I'd take a stab at £2,400 a day? So, more than the average man or woman - including many with the same engineering degree Carol has - earns in a month.
It's not as if Carol's going to go poor, is it? It's not as if she sits at home between those "gruelling" (quote: The Mail on Sunday) waiting for the next one to come along, is it?
Even if she was never to appear on TV again (God's not that kind), Carol would still have plenty of other lines of work to fall back on. A quick search on Carol's name on Amazon reveals the Carol Vordeman's English Made Easy: Age 5-6 - Book 3, Carol Vorderman's Detox for Life: The 28 Day Detox Diet and Beyond, Eat Yourself Clever: A 28-day Plan to Help You Lose Weight, Improve Brain Power and Boost Wellbeing by Carol Vorderman, Carol Vordeman Unlimited Sudoku Handheld LCD Game, Sudoku Interactive - Carol Vordeman, Maths Made Easy Times Tables: Ages 7-11 Key Stage 2 (Carol Vorderman's Maths Made Easy), Carol Vorderman's 14 Days Easy Detox (presumably if you don't have time for the 28-day plan), Carol Vordeman's Sudoku Kids Symbols Handheld Electronic Game, Carol Vorderman's Detox Recipes: Updated and Extended, Carol Vorderman's 30-Day Cellulite Plan: Lose 30% of Your Cellulite and 8lb in 30 Days, Carol Vordeman Pink Ultimate Sudoku LCD Game (in case the other versions don't express you sexuality), and for good measure, the Electronic Handheld Portable Digital Sudoku Game.
Not bad for someone who can do Maths fast, is it? And I haven't even mentioned the decade she spent fronting adverts for one of those companies which keeps daytime TV going - debt consolidation loans for homeowners. The firm involved, Firstplus, was prepared to offer more than the value of the house, therefore driving people into negative equity. Even with my GCSE B-grade maths, I know that doesn't add up very well.
But still, it paid the wages, didn't it?
Apparently the TV producers who decided to tell her to accept less or sod off said "Countdown easily survived without Richard Whiteley. It can easily survive without you."
Her agent added: "It was that callous." That's not callous, that's stating fact. The show did continue, and there are plenty of other good hosts with cuddly, daytime charisma to go with it. Des Lynam, Des O'Connor - they are two to have taken over so far. Rory Bremner's tipped for it next, but there are dozens out there.
And the same applies to Carol Vorderman's job. It ain't rocket science, it's fast maths and the ability to stand up and pick up cardboard letters at the same time. There are others out there who can do it, and presumably build up a spin-off empire like Carol has done to.
Yes it might be the end of an era, but so what? At a time when people are struggling to make ends meet in the face of rising prices and striking because of poor pay rises, please don't expect sympathy for being offered more than £2k for a day's work.
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