A little bit ago [July 19, 2012 — so I’m a little behind], the L.A. Times ran an article about whether TV hosts are pulling their own weight, salary wise. (What is the real value of TV stars and personalities?) I took their data table and put it in a CSV format, and added a column called “epynomious”, which indicates whether the show is named after the host. (This apparently doesn’t explain the salary variation.) A later letter to the editor pointed out that the analysis doesn’t take into account how frequently the show must be recorded, and hence how often the host must come to work. Your students might enjoy adding this variable and analyzing the data to see if it explains anything. Maybe this is a good candidate for ‘enrichment’ via Google Refine? TV salaries from LA Times
