Like her best friend Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King knows how to secure the bag. It’s being reported that King will stay on at CBS after signing a new contract. King has reportedly doubled her salary to 11 million dollars a year
Gayle King will be joined by Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil as co-hosts of CBS This Morning, and Norah O’Donnell has been named anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News, CBS News announced Monday morning. O’Donnell will also be the lead anchor of political events for the network and continue as a contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes.
The timing of the negotiations could not have been better for Gayle King. She recently interviews embattled R&B singer R. Kelly about the Lifetime series Surviving R. Kelly, which gives a detailed account of his alleged sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, and pedophilia. Within minutes, the interview went viral.
Oprah gave Gayle some advice as she entered talks with the CBS brass. Winfrey spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about King in a new cover story on the media mogul: “I said, ‘Get what you want. Get exactly what you want, because now’s the time. And if you don’t get what you want, then make the next right move. I actually called up her lawyer, Allen Grubman, and I said, ‘Allen, she should get what she wants.’ And Allen goes, ‘What the F do you think I’m doing here? I said the same thing to her!’”
Winfrey continued, “I sent her a text saying, ‘Jesus looooves you.’ But [the R. Kelly interview] could not have been better if I had done that myself. I think every interviewer thinks, ‘What would you have done in that moment?’ And what she did was absolute perfection. I just thought that for this moment to happen at the time when she’s also in the middle of negotiations is unbelievable — but she’s always had that [gift].”
