Actors and performers covered through their choices: parts taken, parts refused, directors returned to, and the run of work that becomes a career.
In an era when a clip can outtravel the show that produced it, the late-night couch remains the industry's most efficient machine for converting a performer into a personality.
Per-episode pay is television's most quoted and least understood number, and the negotiation behind it is a machinery of quotes, tiers, and leverage that says everything about how the industry prices fame.