Tomi Lahren is a conservative political commentator who gained attention on her show Tomi on TheBlaze. She was known for her three-minute video segments at the end of the program, often called “final thoughts,” where she spoke quickly about her opinions on different matters. Lahren frequently lambasted liberal politics and several of her videos went viral so that she was dubbed as a “rising media star” and was also touted as “the young Republican who is bigger than Trump on Facebook.”
In March 2017, she was suspended from TheBlaze because she believed that women should have access to abortion when she made a guest appearance on The View. She now works at Great American Alliance, a pro-Donald Trump advocacy organization. Lahren is also part of Fox News as a contributor.
Anderson Cooper – $11m
Anderson Cooper had no formal education in journalism, but he had the sheer will and intelligence for the job. He interned at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) while studying political science at Yale University. In pursuit of a career in journalism, he worked as a fact checker for a small news agency. Later, he traveled to Myanmar to meet students fighting the Burmese government, of which he created a homemade news segment and eventually sold it to Channel One.
Cooper later worked his way up and rose to the position of co-anchor and eventually became one of the most distinguished anchors in television. He used to host his own daytime talk show, Anderson Live. He is currently the primary anchor of the CNN news show called Anderson Cooper 360° and a correspondent for 60 Minutes.
Katy Tur – $500k
When she was starting out, Katy Tur worked for different news outlets including KTLA, News 12 Brooklyn, HD News/Cablevision, and Fox 5 New York. She also had a stint at The Weather Channel as a storm chaser. In 2009, she landed a job at NBC’s local station in New York City, which led her to the NBC national headquarters. On the same year, she was given AP’s Best Spot News Award for her coverage of the crane collapse on the Upper East Side if Manhattan.
Tur reported for several NBC News platforms such as Today, Early Today, Meet the Press, and NBC Nightly News. She was also NBC’s reporter for the Donald Trump presidential campaign. She was the one who informed the Trump campaign about the controversial tape of Trump’s conversation with Billy Bush about women. A Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism was given to Tur in 2017.
Giada de Laurentiis – Minimum $3m
Giada de Laurentiis dreamt of becoming a pastry chef after studying at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, but that clearly didn’t pan out. Instead, she worked as a chef in several Los Angeles restaurants including the Wolfgang Puck-owned Spago. She was working as a food stylist when Food Network contacted her after they saw her styling piece in Food & Wine magazine in 2002. She rose to prominence with her first show Everyday Italian. Since then, de Laurentiis has been a staple in the network, and she has created an empire that led to more TV series, several cookbooks, and restaurants.
Other TV series that was birthed from her first show included Behind the Bash, Giada On The Beach, Giada’s Weekend Getaways, Giada in Paradise, Giada in Italy, Giada Entertains, Winner Cake All, and her most recent, Giada at Home. She also appears as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC’s Today. De Laurentiis has received awards and accolades such as the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle Host, and in 2012, she was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame.
Erin Burnett – $3m
Erin Burnett started out in the financial industry as a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs. She was then offered to work at CNN as a writer and booker for CNN’s Moneyline. In the next few years, she hosted and anchored different shows including CNBC’s Squawk on the Street and Street Signs. She also appeared occasionally on The Celebrity Apprentice as an advisor to Donald Trump.
In 2011, Burnett returned to CNN and anchored her own show called Erin Burnett OutFront. It was this program where she experienced hosting live from the borders of Afghanistan, Mali, Rwanda, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates. She was once labeled by Joe Scarborough as “The International Superstar” because of the number of documentaries she has filmed outside the United States.