From Steve Harvey To Oprah Winfrey, Here’s How These TV Stars Became Filthy Rich
Oprah Winfrey (The Oprah Winfrey Show) – $300 Million
No one in the world can deny Oprah Winfrey her title as the queen of all media. She has a $3.5 billion net worth and is America’s first African-American multi-millionaire. She is also one of the greatest African-American philanthropists as well, and it all got kick-started by “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
It ran from 1986 to 2011, was syndicated worldwide, and has the highest ratings for its format. She also earned an Oscar nomination for her role in “The Color Purple.” She has also won 18 Daytime and two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2021 she served as producer on another season of “Queen Sugar.”
Harris Faulkner (Outnumbered) – $2 Million
Can the American newscaster Harris Faulkner even catch a breath? In 2022, she continued to collect daily appearances in “Outnumbered” and “The Faulkner Focus,” the two shows that have convinced Fox News to pay her an impressive yearly salary of $2 million.
Remarkably, Faulkner started her journalistic career by selling business articles for $50 apiece to the LA Weekly newspaper. She then went on to work as a reporter for multiple local news stations before joining Fox News in 2005. So far, her decades-long spell with the conservative news network has been nothing short of a success.
Rachel Maddow (The Rachel Maddow Show) – $30 Million
At the start of 2022, the one-and-only Rachel Maddow made her 4,421st appearance in “The Rachel Maddow Show,” one of MSNBC’s most popular programs. A former Stanford University and Oxford University student, she is the first openly-lesbian news anchor to host a major news show in the United States and gets a salary of $30 million per year for her services.
A notable broadcaster and political commentator, Maddow has transcended the realms of journalism and established herself as an all-around pop-culture figure in the United States. She’s also an author: in 2021, she won a Grammy for her 2019 book “Blowout.”
Craig Melvin (NBC News) – $3 Million
Craig Melvin is a hard news kind of guy. Nothing gets him pumped quite like covering something with a tough shell. Even when he was working for WIS-TV in South Carolina, he created a series about homeless people and their plight in the state of Columbia. This served him well when he joined NBC/MSNBC.
While there, he covered everything from mass shootings to tornadoes and even covered the 2016 Rio Olympics. He did this all while still anchoring the daytime news and shows like “Dateline Extra,” “Today,” “MSNBC Live,” and “Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly.” In 2021 he was part of a series called “MSNBC Reports Craig Melvin Reports.”
Sean Hannity (Hannity) – $25 million
Sean Hannity got his start in radio broadcasting. This was in the late ’80s when he dubbed himself “the most talked-about college radio host in America.” He specializes in political commentary, and his skills have earned him shows like his radio talk show called the “Sean Hannity Show” and his TV show on Fox News called “Hannity.”
He has also branched his skills into the publishing game and has three New York Times bestsellers to his name, the latest of which is “Live Free or Die: America.” He wrote that last one despite saying he didn’t have time for books and has also appeared in “Fox News Primetime” in 2021.
Steve Harvey (Family Feud) – $45 Million
For Steve Harvey, the road to earning $75 million a year was steeped in plenty of day jobs. He worked as anything from a carpet cleaner to a boxer, insurance salesman, and even an autoworker. All of this while he perfected his night gig—stand-up comedy. It all came together for him, though.
From stand-up comedy, he starred in a sitcom called “The Steve Harvey Show.” He was also part of the “Original Kings Of Comedy film,” and authored a bestselling book called “Act Like a Lady, Think Like A Man.” He has also hosted “Miss Universe” and the popular game show “Family Feud,” which he returned to in 2021.
Oprah Winfrey (The Oprah Winfrey Show) – $300 Million
No one in the world can deny Oprah Winfrey her title as the queen of all media. She has a $3.5 billion net worth and is America’s first African-American multi-millionaire. She is also one of the greatest African-American philanthropists as well, and it all got kick-started by “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
It ran from 1986 to 2011, was syndicated worldwide, and has the highest ratings for its format. She also earned an Oscar nomination for her role in “The Color Purple.” She has also won 18 Daytime and two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2021 she served as producer on another season of “Queen Sugar.”
César Millán (Dog Whisperer) – $480K
César Millán is a dog trainer. It doesn’t sound like the job of a millionaire, does it? However, this Mexico-born celebrity is so good at it that he managed to amass an astounding net worth of $20 million. Most of the money came not from his dog-training services but from his work as an author and TV personality. To this day, he’s best known for his show “Dog Whisperer with César Millán.”
After becoming famous, Millán never stopped working in entertainment and starred in a few other dog-related shows, including “César Millán’s Dog Nation” and “César Millán: Better Human Better Dog.”
Pam Oliver – $2 Million
Pam Oliver has made a name for herself as one of America’s most vital female sports journalists. She is famous for her sideline coverage of the NBA and NFL and currently does this coverage for Fox News Network. She cut her teeth at ESPN in 1993 before joining fox in 1995.
She’s been doing the sideline reporting for Fox’s team 2, dovetailing fellow female Journalist Erin Andrews, who does the coverage for team 1. Being on the second team doesn’t mean she earns second-team money; and she brings in second rate money, and she earns a cool $2 million annually. This adds to her net worth of $8 million.
Suzanne Malveaux (CNN) – $3 Million
Suzanne Malveaux is an American journalist best known for her recurring TV appearances. She’s also been making headlines for being the partner of Karine Jean-Pierre, the one chosen to become the 35th White House Press Secretary in 2022. Malveaux and Jean-Pierre are said to reside together and have a young daughter.
A longtime CNN employee, Malveaux made a fortune of at least $3 million (some outlets report it can be as high as $5 million) by working in broadcasting. You may have seen her do her thing in shows such as “At This Hour,” “New Day,” “CNN Newsroom,” “CNN Right Now,” and “Robin & Company.”
Jimmy Fallon (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) – $16 million
During his time at “Saturday Night Live,” Jimmy Fallon had a bit of a reputation. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing at the sketch he was performing in. This is most notable in the famous “More Cowbell” sketch with Christopher Walken. He is still a great comedian, though.
That’s why he has landed some major jobs, including “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and his long-standing show “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” This is also why he earns the big bucks, raking in $16 million annually and a net worth of $60 million. In 2021 he appeared in another show called “The Kids Tonight Show.”
Joe Buck (Monday Night Football) – $15 Million
The son of the late American sportscaster Jack Buck, Joe Buck was wise to follow his father’s footsteps and become a sports commentator. With appearances in roughly 140 TV shows, he made it to over 100 episodes of “NFL on FOX” since the mid-’90s.
In 2022, Buck’s already impressive Fox Sports annual salary of $11 million was upgraded to a much-cooler $15 million per year. It was a consequence of signing a highly profitable new deal with ESPN to serve as the leading announcer of the popular show “Monday Night Football.”
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