Debra Messing Chastises E! About Gender Pay Inequity on Live TV

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Debra Messing used her red-carpet interview on E! to side with Catt Sadler, the former E! host who left the network in December because she said her male colleague, Jason Kennedy, was paid twice as much.

“I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn’t believe in paying their female co-host the same as their male co-host,” Ms. Messing, an actress on NBC’s “Will & Grace,” said on live television to E! commentator Giuliana Rancic. “I miss Catt Sadler, so we stand with her. And that’s something that can change tomorrow.”

Ms. Sadler said in an interview in December that a network executive told her of the disparity. She left after the company refused her demand to be paid comparably.

“It’s heartbreaking in one sense, but I believe that you have to act in alignment with your beliefs,” Ms. Sadler said in that interview. “As much as I wanted to stay, I do know my worth, I do know the inner workings of the network, and I just wanted what was fair and reasonable.”

The network, which would not provide pay details of the two hosts, denied that it paid Ms. Sadler less because she is a woman, saying in a statement that it “compensates employees fairly and appropriately based on their roles, regardless of gender.” It also said the roles of Ms. Sadler and Mr. Kennedy were not comparable.

Ms. Sadler was one of three hosts on “Daily Pop,” and she co-hosted the network’s flagship “E! News” twice a week. She co-hosted both shows five days a week for several months but cut back on ‘E! News” because of the strain of doing both every day, she said in December.

Mr. Kennedy hosts “E! News” five nights a week, and co-hosts “Live From the Red Carpet” before major awards shows.

Ms. Sadler said even after cutting back on her “E! News” appearances, she was hosting seven hours per week compared with Mr. Kennedy’s five.

“I inherited a lot more work and several more work hours, and I did all of that all year long without a single extra dime,” she said. “I did that in good faith because I’m a team player and I wanted both shows to succeed. I trusted that, come time to renegotiate, I would be compensated fairly for all of that work moving forward.”