BBC Announces Female 'Doctor Who' Will Make The Same Amount As Her Male Predecessors

Chalk one up for gender equality. As the howls of outraged fanboys die away over the coming regeneration on Doctor Who of our favorite Time Lord into a Time Lady, the BBC has given us something new to cheer about. Apparently, the show's newest lead, Jodie Whittaker, will be making exactly the same amount as her previous incarnation, played by Peter Capaldi.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, BBC Chief Tony Hall confirmed that the gender pay gap does not exist on the TARDIS.

Yes, there is parity for the same amount of work. And I do think it is time for 13th Time Lord to be a woman. I watched my first Doctor Who in the Sixties, hiding behind the sofa. As a devoted Whovian, I'm incredibly excited.

The irony is, the entire conversation came up because of the revelation of the BBC's payroll. The BBC, as many know, is financed completely through taxpayer funds, which, during these years of ongoing austerity, the Tories have been arguing should be cut. As part of these ongoing negotiations with the UK government, the BBC agreed to release their payroll to the public so that fans of their programming can see exactly how much of their money goes to pay the talent they watch every night.

The uproar this has caused has been deafening, to say the least. The highest paid female star on the Beeb (Claudia Winkleman) makes only a 1/5 of the highest paid male star, and the highest paid PoC star (Jason Mohammad) only 1/9th. Several of their female top talent who are not under contract are making noises about renegotiating or leaving.

Perhaps the reason Whittaker is able to make as much as her previous incarnation is due to the fact that their salaries don't even come close to cracking the Top 25? Still, it's good to know that the BBC is managing to keep gender parity in their wages in their fantasy time traveling shows, even if they can't actually manage the same here on Earth in 2017.