News
Gayle King Reportedly Took ‘Substantial’ Pay Cut to Stay at CBS: ‘Lucky She Got the Deal At All’
Gayle King took a “substantial” pay cut to stay at CBS News, Rob Shuter reported in his Naughty But Nice Substack on Thursday, March 5.
Insiders told Shuter that rivals at NBC and ABC weren’t “lining up to poach” the anchor, who announced that she will continue on CBS Mornings on March 4.
“It took a minute, but we got there,” King, 71, said in a statement to Variety. “And now that we are here, I am all in.”
“To be paid millions to remain in third place is still a great offer,” one television insider told Shuter. “Gayle is lucky she got the deal at all.”
As another source put it, “Gayle needs this job more than the job needs her.”
As the National Enquirer previously reported, King was expected to take just half of her salary, which Shuter reported was about $13 million.
And CBS only made that deal, another insider told Shuter, because no one else wanted the job.
“It’s brutal getting up at 3:30 every morning,” the insider noted, adding that only fellow CBS correspondent Norah O’Donnell might realistically have taken her place. “Top talent simply wasn’t interested.”
