(FORTUNE Magazine) – At $20 million a picture, Will Smith is actually cheap--underpaid, even. No, seriously. According to a new metric making its way around the entertainment industry--the cost-per-viewer calculation (CPV)--the Men in Black and Ali star is a box-office bargain. It's a fairly straightforward measure: Divide a star's salary by the number of people he reaches. We did our own CPV analyses of some of the biggest names in television, film, and music, and found a few surprises. For instance, CNN talking head Larry King is nearly seven times costlier than Fox's Greta Van Susteren. For the film stars, we considered their average box-office draw in our calculation. As for Mariah, with all the talk about her $28 million kiss-off, we just had to see what Glitter cost her ex-record company EMI. In a word, ouch.

REPORTER ASSOCIATE Christopher Tkaczyk

Cost per viewer

Haley Joel Osment 11 cents Film actor

Susan Lucci 23 cents All My Children

Halle Berry 36 cents Film actor

J.K. Rowling 36 cents Author of Harry Potter series

Judy Sheindlin 43 cents Judge Judy

Greta Van Susteren 78 cents On the Record

Ray Romano 89 cents Everybody Loves Raymond

Will Smith $1.02 Film actor

Nicole Kidman $1.15 Film actor

Tom Hanks $1.19 Film actor

Julia Roberts $1.46 Film actor

Rush Limbaugh $1.62 The Rush Limbaugh Show

Mel Gibson $1.81 Film actor

Russell Crowe $1.88 Film actor

Katie Couric $2.19 Today

Kelsey Grammer $2.44 Frasier

Conan O'Brien $3.14 Late Night With Conan O'Brien

Bill O'Reilly $3.89 The O'Reilly Factor

Cast of Friends $4.86 Television actors

Larry King $5.38 Larry King Live

Mariah Carey $98 Singer