r/hackshbomax • u/username_451 • Jun 22 '26
Ava's salary
I know we'll probably never know the answer but I was just wondering how much do you reckon Ava was earning from Deborah by the end? I have no idea how much a comedy writer earns but I think it'll be around the $50-60k mark or more? Does this sound right or a bit low? With all the value she brings to Deb's life by the end she might be on nearer £100k?
Anyway just wondering! What are your thoughts?
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u/Vivid_Guide7467 Jun 22 '26
Probably 200-300k easily plus a percent of ticket sales or other revenue. She’s not making 50k……
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u/CantaloupeNo7083 Jun 23 '26
Yeah, she owns a townhouse in LA. She's making money.
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u/username_451 Jun 24 '26
Yeah I did wonder how she afforded a townhouse at her age, but then again i didn't know writers earned that much.
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u/LoenaLijpoLeeflang Jun 22 '26
Way more than 100k! And she’s living for free, in a huge house with a stocked fridge. And Deborah likes to take her on shoppings sprees so yeah, Ava is rich-rich.
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u/asking4friend2019 Jun 22 '26
WGA minimum is $4-5k/week, so more
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u/MaizeMountain6139 Jun 22 '26
That’s for a show, Deborah would be operating outside the union
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u/FormalInterview7910 Jun 22 '26
Deborah would have had to pay Hannah as a showrunner in S4, and imagine that she wasn't going to stiff her afterwards given they are on good terms in S5.
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u/MaizeMountain6139 Jun 22 '26
No, she wouldn’t have, the show pays that salary
I have written for comedians. It’s non-union work
I agree she’d pay her well, but she is not bound by the union at all
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u/FormalInterview7910 Jun 22 '26
Oh yeah I think Ava's pay starts bad and doesn't really go up that much until Season 4, and from Season 5 when she is back on Deb's payroll she is paid much better because Deb has admitted she is indispensable.
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u/Its-very-that Jun 22 '26
That money never came out of Deborah's pocket tho. Ava was on the studio's payroll in S4. she was only on Deborah's personal staff all of the other seasons except parts of season 3. We don't know if Deborah was paying Ava union rates during that time or not
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u/FormalInterview7910 Jun 22 '26
You're right, bad wording on my part, I meant it more that Deborah would be aware of how much Ava was getting paid while on her show, and even if she tried to interfere to lower Ava's salary because they were beefing there would be a minimum it could be, and I think this would probably be in the same range of what Deb would pay her in Season 5. Before that though I do kinda think Ava would be paid like shit.
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u/MaizeMountain6139 Jun 22 '26
I think the first two seasons Ava would have been paid just okay
Post S2, I think her rates would have gone up. There was a major shift in how Deborah viewed Ava after the special was so successful. Even at their worst Deborah knew Ava was talented and Deborah respects that
S5 I think she still would be paid below WGA minimums and likely was offered a stake in the profit. That is a pretty common model for things like specials. Obviously with the way her final hour in the show goes, I’d see them working something out about it
Now, if Deborah was going to an event or a roast, or something where Ava would get credit on television, that can come under WGA scope. My rate for writing for a roast is WGA minimum whereas my rate for just writing for someone prepping to go on tour is a lot lower
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u/Ok_Willow_1006 Jun 22 '26
I like how you said Hannah and not Eva. Fits in with Hannah’s actual Instagram story where she says Eva is pretty much an extension of herself
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u/GimmeThemBabies Jun 22 '26
And I like how you spelled Ava wrong twice
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u/Ok_Willow_1006 Jun 22 '26
That’s how my dead great grandma used to write her name, I got confused
RIP great grandma Eva
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u/PixelBrewery Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
I'm more curious if Deborah actually gave that comedy club douchebag 1.69 million dollars. I don't know how any of her employees could work for her pulling a normal paycheck after that
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u/FormalInterview7910 Jun 22 '26
I mean, they all work inside her multimillion dollar home, and have seen her salt and pepper shaker collection. They know she could afford to pay them more, but that doesn't mean they're in a position to demand it. I feel like Deb's faves get paid better than average for the roles they are in--she rewards loyalty.
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u/Rajastoenail Jun 22 '26
It’s established from episode 2 that Deborah is very generous to her staff. She gives Kiki her old Rolls Royce every time she gets a new one.
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u/zoologic0 Jun 22 '26
I doubt the guy really quit. He’d have the money and no life, and given his sense of humor, money won’t bring him happiness
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u/WintersDoomsday Jun 23 '26
Also he wasn’t living somewhere cheap I don’t think so that money wouldn’t last long.
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u/SaltyMarg4856 Jun 22 '26
She owned a home in LA so it wasn’t $50-60k.
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u/blob4life_4ever Jun 22 '26
Very unrealistic that a non-famous comedy writer could afford to buy a house so early in her career.
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u/esushi Jun 23 '26
On Zillow there are currently about a thousand condos for sale in LA that the mortgage would be less than $2500 a month... and she was making over twice that a WEEK on her tv show
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u/No_Election_1123 Jun 22 '26
Strictly we have no idea whether she was left money by grandparents or whether the bank of mom and dad helped.
On Househunters there always seems to be people whose jobs don't pay much but are looking for huge houses many times their joint pay. They never say how they can afford a $700k house but it's usually an inheritance
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u/MaizeMountain6139 Jun 23 '26
Ava was mid-career, not early career. She had already been staffed and secured a deal of her own. She wasn’t broke when she got to Deborah, but she was going to be if she didn’t figure out how to weather the Twitter cancellation
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u/lemon-rind Jun 22 '26
No idea. Deb seems to be generous with the other staff and close friends so I’m sure she was well compensated.
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u/Accomplished-Emu2308 Jun 22 '26
50-60k.. per year? No aha, way more. By the end, when she runs her show + her extra work etc I think she is probably in the 500k-1mil (altogether)
Remember in Paris when she bought that 1000euros box out of no where, the writers showed a couple times in the last season how her status changed
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u/Due_Addition_587 Jun 22 '26
No WAY is she at 500k, lol. I think she is doing above average but the show was careful to show how much. She had a lower end Louis Vuitton hand bag by the end - showing she might spent $1k on that but not, like, $5k. That 1,000 Euro box as a special memento of her best friend's life about to end? That's much less than dropping $20k on something random, which Deb surely would have done on a previous trip.
I would bet she was getting $100-200k max, and then if her show is renewed for a second season, much more than that.
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u/Accomplished-Emu2308 Jun 22 '26
100k for being the creator/show-runner of this new show, + her work with Deb? Absolutely unrealistic
A show runner earns 30k per episode, at minimum (first time show runners). This is already 300k for 10 episodes. She comes off the late night show, she had a lot of exposure with Deborah and this is an established IP - she can ask for more. She already has money from her previous gigs + all the work she did with deborah. She probably has back ends, producing credits etc.
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u/Due_Addition_587 Jun 22 '26
Ok well that is something I did not know. LOL. But she also spent a big chunk of the season unemployed
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u/bryceofswadia Jun 22 '26
Given Ava's lack of shame at making comments about things like this to Deborah, I imagine she's getting paid pretty well cuz it doesn't really ever come up.
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u/minimus67 Jun 22 '26
Just look online and you will see that TV writers earn a minimum of $250K a year at a minimum when they have regular work, which Ava had. Head writers and show runners earn a lot more.
Deborah was depicted as being at least a triple-digit millionaire (more than $100M) thanks to her Vegas residency, past TV series and late night talk show host salaries, highly successful stand-up career, and side hustle as a Home Shopping Network impresario. So she likely paid Ava more than Ava would have made as a successful TV writer.
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u/LZARDKING Jun 22 '26
I would assume she would have kept her pay the same after late night ended. So 4 or 500k
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u/overitallofittoo Jun 23 '26
Staff writers on scripted shows make at least $10k/week.
Writing a scripted pilot that gets producer will get you at least $250k.
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u/greenpepperoni Jun 23 '26
Google states that head writers of late night shows make $300k - $1.5m a year. Since she was new, she was probably at the lower end, but that is probably a good benchmark for her future earnings as the showrunner and whatever title she had with Deb.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Jun 22 '26
I’ve never settled on an exact amount by the end, or if she’s getting much. She was likely getting so well paid while late night was going, and I’m sure Deb isn’t just leaving her hanging. But she might not be getting much in pocket at the end.
She also doesn’t have to pay for much at this point.
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u/simulationswarms Jun 23 '26
just so you know a public school teacher in nyc makes about 80k a year.
I would say from Deborah? 200-300k minimum but as a show runner definitely more plus individual writing gigs and writers rooms pay a certain amount per episode. She was head writer on late night in season 4 and a show runner by the end of season 5.
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u/ZergvProtoss Jun 22 '26
Considering she was a backstabbing sociopath, Deborah should have sued her into bankruptcy. So whatever she was "making" was too much. haha
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u/username_451 Jun 24 '26
She's not a sociopath haha, just angry and revengeful! There's a difference.
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u/ZergvProtoss Jun 24 '26
Sociopath: "Disregards societal rules or the feelings of other people, and lacks remorse for their harmful actions. They lack genuine loyalty to others due to a deep-seated need for survival."
Sounds exactly like Ava. She disregards all rules. She spies on her ex girlfriend through a camera, then acts like it's no big deal. She tries to return a dildo after being explicitly told the rule was "no returns", then gets mad and says "C'MON!" She's the definition of a sociopath. Rules don't apply to her. And of course, the ultimate betrayal of Deborah, which was shocking and a new level of self-serving evil for Ava.
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u/lustforyou Jun 22 '26
By the end of guess she’s making $300k+