Chelsea Handler overpaid, Ashton Kutcher underpaid: report

Chelsea Handler is one of the most overpaid stars on TV and Ashton Kutcher is one of the most underpaid, according to a new report.

The Los Angeles Times calculated how much several popular TV personalities are paid per viewer by dividing their annual salaries by the average number of viewers for each stars show as a way of determining whos overpaid (and underpaid) for their services.

Handler is one of the most overpaid stars, banking $16.70 per viewer as host of Chelsea Lately, thanks to her $12 million salary and the shows 0.7 million viewers.

AP

Chelsea Handler

Anderson Cooper and David Letterman are also overpaid, based on the LA Times calculations. Cooper makes $13.54 per viewer for his work on Anderson Cooper: 360 ($6 million salary, 0.4 million viewers) while Letterman makes $9.69 for each one of his 3.2 million viewers due to his $31 million salary, a figure The Times notes is partly due to his longtime success in late night.

Perhaps the most overpaid personality, though, is the now-off-TV Keith Olbermann, who was paid a whopping $56 per viewer for his Current TV gig, due to his $10 million salary.

Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher, Ryan Seacrest and Christina Aguilera are among the most underpaid stars despite their massive salaries, due to the popularity of their various shows, the LA Times concludes.

Kutcher makes $17 million a year for his work on Two and a Half Men, but the shows 14.7 million viewers bumps his pay per viewer down to $1.16.

Seacrest only earns $0.75 per viewer as host of American Idol despite his $15 million salary and the shows 20 million+ viewers.

Former Idol judge Jennifer Lopez only made $0.63 per viewer with her $12.5 million con! tract. A nd her Voice counterpart Christina Aguilera earned less ($0.17 per viewer with her $2.1 million salary and the shows 12.7 million viewers).

The LA Times salary figures are based on interviews with talent agency reps, managers and network officials as well as published reports.

And the paper does note that the steep paydays of some stars are mostly due to those men and women being integral parts of popular shows that may film hundreds of episodes per year.