January 11, 2024
Gary Owen Reveals Pay Issues While Working On Steve Harvey Talk Show
The Katt Williams effect continues with Gary Owen tossing his hat into the ring to talk about the low pay he received while working on Steve Harvey’s former talk show.
Owen’s name was brought up during Williams’ now-viral interview with Shannon Sharpe. As a result, Owen took to his Getsome with Gary Owen podcast to open up about his time working with Harvey, whom Williams accused of stealing jokes from fellow comedian Mark Curry.
According to Owen, he made more from three episodes of Hip Hop Squares than he did, working three days a week for two weeks on Harvey’s former talk show.
“I just did Hip Hop Squares, the show DeRay [Davis] used to host, and I filmed three episodes in one day on Hip Hop Squares and made four times the money I made doing two weeks of The Steve Harvey Show,” Owen revealed in a clip shared online.
The House of Payne star went on to explain how he landed the gig on Harvey’s talk show after initially appearing as a guest to promote his reality show. Two episodes were filmed a day for the two weeks Owen served as an announcer.
“It was only two people on the show every week. It was me and Steve,” Owen continued. “I just pretty much said, ‘Give it up for Steve Harvey,’ and I announced the guests and go back to my dressing room.”
Owen impressed Harvey enough to receive an offer to join the show as his “sidekick,” which could lead to his own “spinoff.” But Owen got a “bad feeling” once he met with one show producer who shot down all of his creative ideas.
“He’s shooting everything down. He goes, ‘No, no, we’ll handle that. We’ll handle the sketches,’” Owen recalled.
“You ain’t gon’ tell me that whatever you’re coming up with is funnier than what I’m coming up with,” he quipped.
The comedian also shared that he was only paid the SAG minimum wage and could not make a living from the income. He admitted to having to turn down comedy gigs during the week because of the demands of the low-paying gig with Harvey.
After just two weeks, Owen decided to quit. He later clarified that his confession wasn’t to bash Harvey because he knows “this is not on Steve Harvey. This is the powers that be behind the scenes.”