The following are some of the most famous and well-respected news correspondents who have walked the walk.
In addition to this list we also have a separate list of the most controversial news correspondents.
The people who’ve been in the news a great deal are David Schwimmer, Geraldo Rivera, and David Letterman. David Letterman is probably the first celebrity you know of who doesn’t have a “news” network to speak of. He is also the only one who doesn’t have any kind of special cable deal that will allow him to broadcast to large audiences on TV. This makes him extremely controversial, for reasons we can’t possibly imagine.
Letterman does have his own news network though, and its called NewsRadio. It is operated by his son, Brian. In addition, CNN (the network that owns Letterman) does have a special deal with NewsRadio, and this deal will pay NewsRadio up to $1,000 a month for broadcast. We all know there is no special deal with CNN, so it makes sense that the network that doesn’t own Letterman would have the same deal.
Letterman has also been on air as “the only person on television to ever appear on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and perform the same act in reverse”, a move that would have made him a bigger star.
Letterman’s new deal with NewsRadio is part of a larger deal that includes an agreement to pay NewsRadio to air Letterman’s shows on the network’s new Saturday morning sports talk show, Letterman Live. The deal will net Letterman a $1.1 million per year income from the deal, with this deal alone he is making more on TV than he is from the network. Letterman would have made $1.
To put that in perspective, if you make 1.1 million per year from your new deal with NewsRadio, you are making an average of $5 million per year! This is great news for Letterman, and it is also great news for you.
Letterman has had some bad luck in the past with his deals with the networks. In 1998 he got fired from his new deal with Fox after the network refused to air a few of Letterman’s specials. In 2003, he was fired from his new deal with ABC after that network didn’t air a special he had made for the network. Letterman has recently been on ABC before, where he was fired after the network decided to not air shows he had made for them.
I think he is still working on his deals with the networks, and Letterman is a great guy, but I can’t say this is good news for him or Letterman.
I’m not sure if Letterman got fired because his talk shows were not being allowed to air on the networks, or if he got fired because he was doing them too well. In any case, Letterman is no longer on television, so I guess it was a matter of time before a new one stepped up. Letterman: Life in the Real World seems to be the new career choice so far.