Nearly six weeks ago, Page Six reported that "CBS This Morning" anchor Gayle King was "poised to sign a new multimillion-dollar contract" amid ongoing negations. Nearly six weeks later, amid fears that the network doesn't have the money to keep her, Gayle still doesn't have a deal in place.
Gayle has previously declined to discuss contract negotiations publicly. When Page Six asked her about how things were going during Variety's Power of Women luncheon in April, for example, she didn't give up anything. "I never ever discuss contracts in the media," she said. "I think the best place to discuss a contract is with CBS."
But now her best friend — Oprah Winfrey — is publicly weighing in on the negotiations.
In a The Hollywood Reporter cover story interview published on April 30, Page Six reports, Oprah admitted that she's encouraged Gayle to ask for what she's worth. (Page Six has previously reported that Gayle was hoping to nearly triple her current salary of $5.5 million a year.)
"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,'" Oprah told THR.
Oprah went so far as to call Gayle's attorney to advocate for her longtime friend. "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!'"
Gayle delivered a ratings success in early March with a headline-making R. Kelly interview in which the R&B star addressed multiple sexual assault allegations against him. Gayle famously kept her cool as the music star riled himself up.
According to Oprah, negotiations between Gayle's camp and CBS began before the R. Kelly interview — a sit-down that Oprah praised. "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," Oprah said. "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]."
Page Six previously reported that for CBS, keeping Gayle is "the big priority," said an insider. "The only thing that would really hurt CBS News at the moment is losing her."
Another high-level source told Page Six that part of the problem is that "It's not like CBS News can all of a sudden find ABC or NBC money — it has to come from somewhere."