I’m so old that I remember getting all of my entertainment news from Steve Kmetko and Jules Asner, the co-anchors of E! News in the 1990s. I still miss them, and I’m not even joking. They were eventually phased out by other people, like Giuliana Rancic and Ryan Seacrest and about a million other people. The current version of E! News has more focus on Millennials and Millennial celebrities (Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are regularly the top story), and the hosts are Catt Sadler and Jason Kennedy. It would not surprise me at all if Jason Kennedy is the personality on E! News with the highest Q-rating – he’s very likeable and “trustworthy” (if you need to be “trustworthy” for gossip news). Catt has been on E! for years, and she was only made the co-anchor following all of the drama with Giuliana Rancic and Fashion Police and all of that. Catt worked her way up, and she and Jason have a nice chemistry together.
Anyway, Catt announced this week that she’s leaving E! News and E!. It was a surprise because, as I said, she worked her way up and it seemed like she loved her job. Well, Catt is now talking about why she’s leaving, and it’s not glamorous in the least – she found out she was being paid significantly less than Jason Kennedy, and E! refuses to renew her contract with equal pay.
After almost 12 years at the network, longtime host Catt Sadler has said goodbye to her “dream job” at E! News — a decision that she says “required a lot of soul-searching.”
“Up until this point, I mean it really has been a dream job. Literally a dream job. I’m from Indiana, born and raised, and I had my sights set on E! and I’ve seen the world. I’ve had the best experiences. I’ve gotten incredibly close with all of my coworkers. It’s like a family here and it’s been beautiful for the majority of my run. I pinch myself every day the job that I get to do. I have so much fun. It has almost been surreal,” Sadler, 43, tells PEOPLE. “But then, this year happened.”
Throughout the past year, the single mother of two — she is mom to sons Arion Boyd, 12, and Austin Boyd, 16 — has taken on more responsibility in her role at E!, including hosting the two-hour live daytime show Daily Pop and “also hosting E! News a majority of nights, so I inherited a lot more responsibility and more work hours and what not.”
This year, Sadler’s contract was coming to an end and she was notified by E! executives that they wanted to extend her deal. But about the same time that was happening, Sadler says she was “informed and made aware that my male equivalent at the network who I started with the same year and have come up with doing essentially similar jobs, if not the same job, wasn’t just making a little bit more than me but was making double my salary and has been for several years. That was really hard to swallow, but you know information is supposed to be power and when my team began negotiations knowing what we knew, that was the barometer in which I expected to be paid, based on the law and based on what I know to be fair. And what I believe in my heart of hearts is reasonable,” she explains about asking to be compensated the same as her co-host and friend, Jason Kennedy, who serves as co-host of E! News as well as a correspondent for red carpet coverage.
Although Sadler was hopeful that she would be able to extend her contract, “not only did [E!] refuse to pay me as much as my male counterpart, but they didn’t come close — nowhere close, not even remotely close.” Upon learning that Kennedy, 36, was being paid double her salary, Sadler admits she was both “in shock” and felt insulted, and ultimately decided two weeks ago that she would depart from the network.
“It’s almost insulting because you know you work really hard. I’m a single mom of two kids. I’ve given my all to this network. I’ve sacrificed time away from my family and I have dedicated my entire career to this network. And when you learn something like that, it makes you feel very small and underappreciated and undervalued,” she shares. “It’s heartbreaking.”
But Sadler asserts that the pay disparity is not Kennedy’s “fault.” “Jason Kennedy is one of my best friends in the whole wide world. He is like a brother to me. And in no way do I want this to reflect poorly on him,” she shares. “He’s devastated, I think, and I think he believes that this is a great loss for the network. He does not want to see me go. Jason is a class act … It’s important that people don’t vilify him because he isn’t the problem — the system’s the problem, the structure’s the problem. And I really do mean that. Because that’s been a hard part of this whole thing because I love him dearly. And to be honest, he has been such a champion for me in every sense. But it’s not his decision.”
Catt also cites women like Jennifer Lawrence and Oprah as inspirations for speaking openly about pay equality, and for standing up for what’s right. Sadler is showing so much backbone here – it would have been easy to interpret her negotiation as a bluff, because she truly loved her job and didn’t want to leave, and E! knew that. But she stood up for herself and what’s right and what’s equitable. E! released a statement to People saying: “E! compensates employees fairly and appropriately based on their roles, regardless of gender. We appreciate Catt Sadler’s many contributions at E! News and wish her all the best following her decision to leave the network.” Horsesh-t. They expected her to do more and more work without compensation AND they expected to pay her less than a man doing the same job. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Jason Kennedy was right there, fighting for Catt too, just as it wouldn’t surprise me if he was the one to tell her how much he was making, in the hopes of helping her contract negotiation. TL;DR version: E! seems like a terrible place to work if you’re a woman.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.
Grrrrrrrr. I hope she sues the pants off of them.
E sucks. I seriously get a migraine if I watch anything on there.
That’s just so depressing.
I hate it when people just lie. Like we support equal pay except we won’t pay this woman what her male equal makes… what a load of bs
When a female national radio co-host in Australia found out she was earning half her male counterpart and told him they fought together for an equal pay for her. When the network wouldn’t budge he cut his salary so they became equal.
(If you are interested in googling it’s “Hughesy and Kate “)
I’m kind of disappointed this hasn’t happened in this case.
I wish E! would go away. They’ve done nothing for the entertainment industry with their crappy reality shows. I hope Catt gets picked up by other gossip shows and continues to show E! how sucky they are.
I wish E AND Bravo would go away forever.
I don’t get my gossip news from E! — I haven’t since I was in a teenager in the days of Watch with Kristin and the Ted Casablanca gossip blinds. I’d never heard of Catt Sadler until today… but this just confirmed my opinion that E! is not for me, and I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for Catt in the future and try to support whatever she does next.
Get ’em Catt. Sounds like she has an actionable case. And in today’s environment I suspect that E will suffer in the court of public opinion as well.
I really love everything she said here, especially about Jason. At my previous job, I was being paid less than men with less experience, even women at the same place on the totem pole but technically with a different role (degree requirements are the same but in different fields). I fought and fought and fought to be paid similarly… no dice. My only argument was that these coworkers shouldn’t be making $20k more than me (I was making $30k at the time, so that difference is HUGE). That’s the thing – that’s awesome for my coworkers to be getting the big paychecks they did, in a tv news field constantly cutting back. I’m truly happy for them, and they deserve it. It’s just that I deserve it too.
Good she knows her worth and E! sucks anyway she deserves to work somewhere better.
I would only say Jason was in her court if he quits now too to protest her not having gotten a pay raise. Honestly if he’s so great and has the highest Q rating, couldn’t he do that and make the diffference?
I’m sure Matt Lauer had the highest Q rating at the Today show and that’s why he got away with so much crazy crap. But everyone I know hated watching him, so who knows where this rating actually comes from.
She’s correct, it’s not his fault he asked for more money and got it. Its the powers that be who should be equally providing raises. I think he told her his salary to help her negotiate. Co-workers salaries aren’t given freely by HR, it would have had to come from him or someone close to him.
Whats a Q rating and what happened to Ms Rancic was she fired?
Giulia Rancic is still on the network and still hosts stuff – I think she took a step back due to personal health reasons…the network did seem to have her back during the whole Fashion Police fiasco…
I disagree that Jason should sacrifice his career for Catt. It’s not his responsibility. The network should be paying her what she’s due. I think it’s unfair to expect others to quit or take a pay cut for someone else. It’s good to support coworkers but blame and responsibility should be the network/company.
Sadly, I think a lot of us have been in this situation… congrats to her for quitting and going public.
She knows her worth. If they don’t want her, I’m sure some other network will want to employ her and offer her the salary she wants. Good for her.
You know, I attended a seminar for women in academia a couple of months ago, and a big thing we talked about was how our culture of not speaking about salaries impacts women. Corporations and Universities take advantage of the cultural secrecy around remuneration and compensation to exploit employees – mostly women.
As far as I’m concerned, this whole ‘talking about income is rude/bad manners’ thing is bullshit.
I think we should all openly and honestly discuss compensation. Ask me what I make, I will tell you, no qualms.
Unfortunately, it’s written in most Employee Handbooks that discussion about salary is cause for termination. A friend and coworker of mine was just written up for allegedly asking someone about their compensation. I say allegedly because the person reported her anonymously. She was given no right to defend herself or confirm whether or not the allegations were true. That’s the law of the land in most Corporate America offices.
Yep, McMe you are correct – but that’s exactly my point, in the professional setting salary info is basically embargoed, in personal settings it is considered rude. Both cases give the employer the upper hand in any negotiation. Most of us can do little to change corporate rules – but we CAN change our own attitudes towards talking about income.
And that’s exactly why those rules exist. To keep women in the dark and penalize them if they try to figure out just how little they are actually being paid.
It is against federal labor laws to discipline or terminate a employee even if it is in the employee handbook because pay was discussed. If I was your friend I would have refused to sign that write up and called the labor board. Most employers depend on employee ignorance when it comes to what they can and cannot do. Employees assume if it is in the handbook it must be so. Not true. It is easy to find on the internet in a search that is is no longer legal for an employer to say employees cannot discuss pay rate. You will find the federal labor board states that employees discussing their pay leads to more equality in pay and enables negotiating pay when needed.
I’ve really come to believe that’s the reason why so many companies frown upon discussing salary. If women really found out how little their work in valued against the work of their male peers it would be pandemonium in corporate America. It’s really just about keeping women in the dark and keeping them quiet.
TOTALLY the reason!!!!
Truth.
It’s also a blatant corporate power grab. It’s actually illegal in most places to bar employees from discussing pay disparities. Suggesting otherwise is how they get away with screwing people over.
Wow that statement from E! is a total lie. I said “Bullsh—!” When I read that part. Jason probably did tell her his salary to help her negotiations. Double?! I completely get her feelings on this.
Yeah I have worked in recruitment for years and was privy to the payroll…there was once a female financial controller that got paid less than her male assistant accountant. Smh
Good for her. That could not have been an easy decision. Women are told time and time again in corporate America that our worth is less than our male peers. Whether that be through pay, through the way maternity leave and motherhood are treated to how our work is evaluated on a daily basis. Know your worth and stick up for it.
I am a professional athlete in a country where the female counterpart of the sport is much,much more successfull than the male.Despite that men are payed equal and some are payed even more than the women.The game has risen incredibly here in the past 8-9 years and I have been witness to it all.The female athletes have been working their asses off,gaining success on the international scene and thereby attracting media and sponsorship attention resulting in better pay and the men have been reaping the benefits.
Despite that,just because I am a woman,raised patriarchally and living in a patriarchal society for the longest time I’ve accepted any pay I have been offered.I didn’t fight for what I knew I deserved(no use in being a loudmouth-thought I).As a result I have almost no savings and am living paycheck to paycheck while my teammates are buying their 7th home(living off rent is a popular retirement plan).This has also affected my performance on the court and made lose my confidence in several instances.
Reading about women fighting for equal pay has been a great source of inspiration for me this year,helping me to see just how broken the system is and how yes I deserve more pay.If I finish this season healthy and successfully I will be much more demanding and nitpicky on the negotiation table.Let them call me a bitch.
Cross your fingers for me Celebitches 😄
Be your best, baddest Bitch and go get ’em!!!!!
Go get em! You are worth it!
wishing catt the best. can’t say i’m a fan of jason kennedy though. he’s always seemed like a massive douche to me ever since he ‘dated’ alli sims (britney spears’ “cousin”/enabler during her breakdown) and then did exclusive interviews with alli, sam lutfi, etc. while britney was under a psych hold
But her married Lauren, I think her last name is Shruggs, or something like that, the young woman who lost her eye and hand in the propeller of a helicopter. He seems genuinely like a good guy and I think, an excellent broadcaster. They all seem to love him. I think Catt overstayed her welcome. She was always filler when Giuliana or Maria were out. Very unprofessional and immature.
If she got butt and breast implants and wh*red her life out on E! … she’d make bank.
Maybe she can host a show on Oprah’s OWN network.
Wish her the best.
Jason Kennedy’s wife has posted on Instagram defending E! and essentially calling Catt a liar, and Jason has endorsed her words by thanking her for what she posted. She is saying she is ‘the biggest support of women’s rights’ BUT this isn’t about gender equality. Disappointed in Jason.