Jim Rome is a sports radio talk show host who started his career as an intern at KTMS station in Santa Barbara. He later became a traffic-update reporter. He then moved to XTRA Sports as a part-timer, but since he was so good, he was given his own radio show called The Jim Rome Show or The Jungle. For a couple of years, he also hosted sports television shows such as The FX Sports Show on FX, Talk2 on ESPN2, and The Last Word on Fox Sports Net.
In 2003, he was hired to host Rome is Burning on ESPN, which aired until 2011 when he joined the CBS network. He hosted Rome as well as a monthly TV sport and entertainment talk show on Showtime called Jim Rome on Showtime. Rome has been named as one of the most influential talk radio personalities according to Talkers Magazine.
Kelly Ripa – $16 Million
Kelly Ripa first appeared on television not as a journalist or anchor but as a dancer and actress. She appeared on Dancin’ On Air in 1986. Her next television exposure was on the famed ABC daytime soap opera All My Children where she was cast as Hayley Vaughn. She took on the role from 1990 until 2002, but she always wanted to be a newscaster. So when Regis Philbin held on-air auditions to find for Kathie Lee Gifford’s replacement, Ripa took the chance, and the rest is history.
She landed the co-hosting spot and became the official replacement in 2001. The show was then called Live! with Regis and Kelly. When Regis left, Michael Strahan replaced him, but he moved to Good Morning America, and Ryan Seacrest took over. Ripa also has appeared in several films including Marvin’s Room. In 2014, she was named by Hollywood Reporter as one of the Most Powerful People in Media.
Ann Curry – $5 Million
Ann Curry has been a reporter for more than 30 years, but just like most journalists, she started as an intern. She worked at then NBC-affiliate KTVL in Oregon and made her way up to become the station’s first female news reporter. She worked at another NBC-affiliate station before moving to Los Angeles as a reporter for KCBS-TV where she received two Emmy Awards. In 2012, she finally rose to become the national and international correspondent–anchor for NBC News. She was also a co-anchor of Today from 2011 to 2012 after being the news anchor since 1997. From 2005 to 2011, Curry also anchored Dateline NBC.
Curry has reported from war-stricken countries such as Darfur, Syria, Congo, Lebanon, Iraq, and Israel and her reporting often focused on human suffering in natural disasters and war zones. In 2015, Curry founded her own multi-platform media startup while continuing to do major news interviews on network television.
Lester Holt – $4.5m
Lester Holt worked for CBS for 19 years as a reporter, international correspondent, and anchor. He joined MSNBC in 2000 and became a substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News and Today. But after Brian Williams’ demotion, Holt became the permanent anchor on the program. This made him the first African-American solo anchor for a network nightly newscast.
Holt is currently the host of NBC’s Dateline. He was also the moderator for the first Presidential debate in 2016, and he was lauded for his excellence and credibility as he fact-checked false statements by both candidates. President Donald Trump told him that his moderation was “very fair.”
Brooke Baldwin – $1.5m
Everyone has small beginnings and so it is with Brooke Baldwin. She began her career at a small station called WVIR-TV in Virginia but soon became the morning anchor at WOWK-TV. Later, she worked as a lead reporter for a station in Washington, D.C.
Baldwin joined CNN’s The Rick List in 2008, in which she later took Rick’s place when he was fired. She is currently hosting CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, which runs from 2 to 4 pm ET. Baldwin won a Silver World Medal for Best Investigative Report for her documentary entitled To Catch a Killer. She has also covered a lot of important events including President Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.