All this talk about Katie Couric's low ratings, how people don't like her, her New York interview, etc, etc. But did you know that she's actually the highest paid of the three nightly network news anchors?
Couric makes around $15 million a year. Over at NBC, Brian Williams is making around $10 million a year. Charlie...sorry, Charles Gibson? He has the most buzz right now but he actually makes the least, around $8 million a year. He didn't get a raise (nor did he want one) when he made the jump from Good Morning America to ABC World News (though I assume he'll get one when his contract is renewed in two years). He says the money thing is "irrelevent." Well, it would be to me too if I was getting $8 million a year.
So here we go again: yet more ammunition for the "Katie is bad, Charles is good" crowd.
[via TV Newser]












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
7-16-2007 @ 4:58PM
h8rain said...
CRAP, I had no idea they made that much money. 8 million a year is almost a thousand dollars per hour.
Yea, but about not asking for a raise, what is the difference between 8 million a year and 15 million a year. Bigger house? Better/more cars? More servants? I mean at that point the money would (to me) not be as a big of a jump, say for someone who is making 30k to 60k (which would to that person be a HUGE deal).
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7-16-2007 @ 5:05PM
Nick said...
h8rain shut up there is a big difference between 8 million a year and 15 million a year. your just retarded and cant read numbers. with the extra money they can buy a house in the caribbean
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7-16-2007 @ 5:19PM
SamMalone said...
Hopefully one would find something better to do with another 7 million than just buy another house. That amount could make a huge impact on a charity.
But I think it's really that the guy wanted to prove himself in the chair/desk before getting the bigger bucks. Or just that "irrelevant" is a news-caster kind of word.
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7-17-2007 @ 8:55AM
SusieQ said...
I have a few comments to make concerning the salary of these news anchor people. Nobody is worth that much money. Thirty minutes of camera time when they are not really the reporter of most of the news. The head hancho for each network should be ashamed.
Now I have to watch the news and all I am thinking about is how much money is being paid to him or her for looking at the camera for 15 minutes or so. The commercials have more camera time than the anchor person. Paying them that much, I can see why we are having all those commercials. You need the money to pay them ridiculous salaries.
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7-17-2007 @ 9:11AM
Emperes said...
I too didn't realize that they made that amount of money and now I really really do not think that Katie is worth it. She spent years riding on her "cute factor" and that "cute" has been long gone for a while. Now she is just stuffy and uptight. I stopped watching her, glad she is off of the Today show but I do have to say I can tolerate Katie on Today more then Merideth, she makes me ill. Merideth comes on and I change the channel. It's all about Charlie Gibson, he's down to earth, easy to listen to and someone that everyone can relate to as a husband, father, uncle, etc. Let's hear it for Charlie!!
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7-17-2007 @ 9:15AM
CM said...
Hey everybody, Nick bought a calculator! Get real Nick. 8 mill to 15 mill? There is a upper limit to how much is enough.
Here's a thought everyone. After Taxes try and figure out what you would buy that first year. Who would help out. What kind of house/car/boat etc would you buy?
Now here is where that Calculator comes in handy.
Add it up, subtract it from what your net is, and then figure out what you would do NEXT year with another 8 million to add to it.
Most people think they have the imagination for it. But most don't. Its not an insult, but its good for stimulating the imagination.
Basically everything becomes free. You have enough money.
If you need another 7 mill to buy a house in the bahamas or borneo you need to work your numbers again? Or else lemme know. I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'm trying to unload.
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7-17-2007 @ 9:21AM
Dina Bourque said...
Wow...I can't imagine why teachers aren't paid that much...they don't actually just recite the news, history,fundamentals...they actually teach it and make sure people like those news anchors get the education they need to get that well paid job!!!!!!!
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7-17-2007 @ 9:30AM
oscar1930 said...
IF YOU THINK THEY GET PAID TOO MUCH, YOU TRY DOING IT.
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7-17-2007 @ 9:33AM
Bill Larson said...
Although he would not remember me, I use to run into Charlie in the halls at ABC news once in awhile(back in the seventies). He was unassuming, pleasant, down-to-earth. So it does not surprise me that he did not ask for a raise. I think many of us (but not enough) had the same philosophy. We were basically brick layers. If you lay the bricks correctly and with care and precision you will build a solid lasting structure. The only difference between us and bricklayers is that our bricks were words. I suspect Charlie has the same philosophy....I hope.
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7-17-2007 @ 9:39AM
Wayne said...
The trouble with being paid such extreme amounts in salary is that: Firstly, no one on this planet is "worth" that much money...overpaid. Secondly, paying such outlandish salaries is one of the main reasons prices are so rediculously high for the average working person.
New subject:
Please do not refer to persons hired to work in a home as "servants". That went out when the slaves were freed. They (we) are now called "domestics" or "house persons" or simply "employees". Thank you.
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7-17-2007 @ 9:41AM
His Royal Highness the Great Sheik T-Bone Mahony said...
The rich get richer as the poor get poorer! I can understand how the Democrats can get away with saying that. They know it is true because they ARE the RICH!
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7-17-2007 @ 9:43AM
Willow Kane said...
There were so many times I wanted to sign up for college courses at "Emerson College," a Boston based College - just for students whom wish to pursue acting, journalism, TV-broadcasting, directing, etc... So many times I almost got to go there. My parents were going to send me, then my brother got sick with cancer and everything had to be put on hold until my younger brother was well again. Although they only gave Brian just under 2 years to live, he is now 52 and enjoying life. So, I look back at Emerson and becoming that "news anchor," and making $8,000,000 per year. It sounds good. Maybe too good to be true..
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7-17-2007 @ 9:54AM
dob said...
LOL..they are all overpaid.
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7-17-2007 @ 9:55AM
Les Gonzalez said...
I always knew that "Perky Couric's" contract was in excess of 10 million a year. Yet, she would be the first to criticize a professional athlete on their multi-million dollar contracts. And while we're at it, how about those so called "movie stars" who make more than 20 million a picture. Most of them are nothing more than box office hype since they certainly can't act! But alas...only in America! God bless this country!
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7-17-2007 @ 9:57AM
Betty Adkins said...
I realize that newsanchors are paid large sums of money, however, it does not compare to the millions and millions sports stars are being paid.
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7-17-2007 @ 10:00AM
alyson said...
Let me ask a question......when we as a society decide to pay a celebrity, news anchor,pro athlete or other face on television millions of dollars a year to entertain us, and pay our teachers, nursing assistances (the ones who wipe your butt when you get old), house keepers, nannies, and other civil servants 20,000-80,000 a year , does that mean they are worthless? Does that mean that hungry children are worthless? Does that mean that those people who take care of us when we are dieing and shape the young minds of our future leaders and our very own children are worthless? And all those althetes, news anchors, celebrities, and tv faces are worth all that we credit them with? what now?
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7-17-2007 @ 10:13AM
Patricia Aguillrd said...
I agree that the news anchors are paid "a bit!!" too much, although they really do more than just sit there and read off the news. And I also agree wholheartedly with Emperes that I like Katie much better on the Today show than as a news anchor .... and also agree 100% about their opinion of Meredith. She does make one a bit ill .... she comes across phony, sweetly syrupy, and seems sometimes to appear that she doesn't really know where she is at the moment! She's trying too hard to "be" Katie -- I think. She should've stayed with The View ... which I never cared for much and watched it so seldom that I really couldn't be counted as a viewer.
I also think (although this is not the subject at hand) that movie actors make exhorbitant salaries.
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7-17-2007 @ 10:15AM
Patricia Aguillard said...
Whoops .... I mispelled my last name. It is Aguillard.
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7-17-2007 @ 10:32AM
Brian said...
Talk about hypocrisy! These news anchors are the very same people who love to report on the outrageous incomes earned by public company CEOs. What nerve.
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7-17-2007 @ 10:38AM
Norm Hagerman said...
My wife and I do not watch Gibson because we have seen him too many times in the past when he was arrogant and pompous. I now mostly watch cable news because there are far fewer commercials. Except the times when they become celebrity obsessed even more than the mainstream media. In the distant past there used to be only THREE commercials per half hour. Now there can be TWENTY!!!
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