‘Didn’t Want to Give Me No Money’: Sherri Shepherd Exposes Lowball Salary Offer at ‘The View’ After Revealing Her Co-Host’s Paycheck
Sherri Shepherd got a major career boost when she joined “The View” in 2007. The comic replaced Star Jones on the roundtable talk show helmed by creator Barbara Walters after first filling in for the attorney.
Walters and the show’s producers loved Shepherd so much that she was soon invited to return as a series regular. “I hit so many checkboxes — they loved that I was the Black single mom, funny, and willing to tell everything about my life,” she told Vulture in a feature story published on Sept. 19.
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Still, she initially turned down offers to claim a permanent seat at the table multiple times. Because of that, “They didn’t call me back for about nine months; [“The View co-creator] Bill [Geddie] had to talk to Barbara because she holds stuff for a long time,” she continued.
When Shepherd finally received another offer to join the ensemble, which included Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, she was disappointed by the proposed $400,000 compensation.
“They didn’t want to give me no money. I would have made more in a sitcom, and I got a boy with special needs,” she said, noting her son, Jeffrey Charles Tarpley Jr., who experienced developmental delays related to his premature birth at just 25 weeks. The “Beauty Shop” actress even recalled tabloids reporting that she was “difficult.”
Shepherd revealed that Rosie O’Donnell encouraged her to fight for a better salary. “’I make $2 million, Joy makes $500,000, Elisabeth Hasselbeck makes $500,000, so you need to ask for $2 million,’” she said of O’Donnell’s advice. “I eventually made a million, too.”
The entertainer paid it forward when she helped Sunny Hostin get a better salary when she joined the show in 2016. “You basically went over your salary for the entire time you were there and you also gave me Jenny McCarthy’s salary,” Hostin recalled during a 2023 appearance on “Sherri.”
“That’s awesome. Knowing the salary of your peers is so helpful in making sure you aren’t being taken advantage of by your employer,” a fan wrote online.
Shepherd exited “The View” in 2014 after seven seasons. In previous interviews, she has admitted to feeling insecure and that her experience was “painful” as she struggled to find her place among the women. Despite dealing with “the best and the worst of the learning curve,” she told Vulture that she has remained in contact with her former co-hosts since her departure.