Bruce Forsyth takes pay cut on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing

September 14, 2009

Bruce Forsyth, presenter of the popular British dancing television competition series Strictly Come Dancing, shown on BBC One, has had his salary cut from £650,000 to £550,000 ($1,085,000 to $918,000) &mdash; a pay cut of roughly 15%. This move comes as part of efforts to reduce the BBC's costs. In an interview with BBC Two news programme Newsnight, Forsyth said: "We have always been overpaid, but it's the demand &mdash; it's like theatre, you will only command a high salary if [you] 'put bums on seats'. So if you are in that position, it does give you a status of asking for big money.  But everybody's taking pay cuts now, it's a good thing."

He commented that he accepted the need for cuts, stating that in his opinion, "entertainers get paid far too much". When asked about whether he personally had taken a pay cut, Bruce answered: "Yes &mdash; and I think everybody has done it with goodwill because these are very, very hard times and it's only right." Bruce, who is 81 years old, also told Newsnight: "It's a good thing to cap the salaries and I think that it should have probably been done a long time ago."

In June 2009, the BBC had told 100 celebrities that they would be getting their salaries reduced in an effort to cut its "top talent bill", blaming "market conditions". Notably affected were current Radio 2 breakfast show disc jockey Sir Terry Wogan, Radio 1 breakfast show DJ Chris Moyles, and Alan Davies, star of BBC One drama Jonathan Creek.