Gayle King has a year left on her "CBS This Morning" contract, but the network is going to have to seriously pay up if it wants to keep her.
The veteran news journalist currently makes about $6 million a year, but she's looking for up to three times that amount, according to Page Six.
"Gayle is holding the show together, she wants George [Stephanopoulos] money — he got between $15 and $18 million to stay on at ABC," a source said.
There have been reports over the past year that Gayle has had issues with the top network brass. She was apparently on the verge of leaving during the Charlie Rose and Les Moonves sexual misconduct scandals in 2017 and 2018. She was also allegedly livid after her favorite executive producer left last December. In addition, at least one of her cohosts could move to a nightly news position at CBS.
During the multimillion-dollar renegotiation, Gayle could very well get what she wants, as CBS News president Susan Zirinsky "is keen to spend more money to keep great talent at the network," Page Six noted.
The negotiations couldn't come at a better time for Gayle, as she's fresh off the heels of her already-infamous R. Kelly interview, an interview that earned her high praise for keeping her composure as the singer angrily ranted about sexual allegations levied against him. A photo from the interview quickly went viral.
Many news veterans publicly said they feared for Gayle during that moment.
"I was not scared. I never thought he was going to hit me. After, Oprah [Winfrey] and my kids Kirby and Will called me to ask if I was okay because it looked scary. But I was never worried he was going to hurt me. I was more worried that he was going to get up and leave," she told O, The Oprah Magazine. "So what I was really thinking to myself was: I'm not done with this interview, so I'm going to let him have his moment. If I stood up even to comfort him, that could have been his invitation to say, 'This is over.' So I didn't interrupt his anger and let him have that."
"I just knew that I was never in danger. I did worry at some points that he might accidentally hit me, because he was so angry that he was flailing," she continued, "but I knew that I wasn't in any real danger. I just kept thinking, 'Okay, Robert, go ahead' and that's what I said."