Arianne went to Ken Corday for help with her toxic workplace in March 2023. He referred her to the Corday CFO Mike Russel who then referred her to Sony HR because there was no HR at the studio.

She made her report but things began escalating so she again contacted Ken Corday whose response to her was an angry “I don’t know what to do about that.

Ari’s pay was decreased twice, her long time travel stipend was removed and she was written out of the show all while Albert Alaar was able to continue in his position.

After the Sony investigation, of which Ari was never apprised of, it was determined that Alaar stay in his position and undergoes sensitivity training.

The sensitivity training was conducted via Zoom and he attended both cast and crew zooms.

Around 30 cast/crew drafted a petition because they didn’t agree that Alaar should remain. Deadline ran a report and Corday Productions decided to remove Alaar.

Ari was treated differently by some of Alaar’s remaining crew. 
She was also treated differently when it came down to renewing her contract. Corday says they offered her a pay increase but did that pay increase equal what male cast members make? Should it have?

It’s not unusual to have gender pay disparities but it is out of date. With all of the lead actresses that were either let go or who left due to the toxic work environment.. there should have been enough to give Arianne a well earned raised.

Alaar had been tellling the cast they were replaceable and by removing women who were earning at the top of their tier of pay they could hire and did hire new comers at a lower rate. They have basically replaced all the top earning women.. While leaving the male cast mostly intact.

if this doesn’t anger the viewers then that is exactly what they want/expect because if they don’t value their female cast do they value you? 
As long as they keep cranking out shows and coming in under budget… there’s really no time to consider the viewers and what they want and there was no time to think about cast morale while Alaar was working.

Somethings gotta give. They can’t keep up with the daily format forever. They can’t keep the male cast members free from budget cuts forever.

They will be doing all kinds of PR touting their shows anniversary and to counter the bad publicity that Arianne’s lawsuit is bringing them.

I think there is more pressure to come in under budget now that it’s on streaming. They should revisit bringing it back to NBC. They had at first intended to get rid of the 3rd hour of the Today show but local stations had nothing to fill that hour with. That’s why the change was so abrupt and Days found itself a server based show.