Oprah Winfrey tops Forbes' list of TV’s top 20 earners

1 October, 2007:

Oprah Winfrey, the US television’s daytime talk-show host, leads the list of highest-paid TV celebrities, having earned $260 million between June 2006
and June 2007. That is more than $700,000 a day!

Nobody else came close to Oprah. The second in the list is Jerry Seinfeld, earning $60 million.

Oprah Winfrey amassed cash from her daytime show, her satellite radio program, women’s service magazine, and the Broadway show The Color Purple, which she produced. She also has stakes in the syndicated shows of Dr Phil McGraw and Rachael Ray.

Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey is producing two reality TV programs – a move that will certainly help her keep her stronghold in the industry.

In the catalogue of highest-paid TV celebrities published by financial magazine Forbes, Oprah Winfrey was joined at the top of the list by another talk show host, David Letterman, who stood at No. 4, by raking in $40 million in the same period from his show Late Night with David Letterman.

Simon Cowell, widely regarded as “the arrogant and harshly critical judge” on top-rated talent show American Idol, earned $45 million to land at No. 3,
and Donald Trump, whose boisterous exclamation “You’re Fired” from reality show The Apprentice became part of the pop culture lexicon, was No. 5, with $32 million.

The Forbes list shows that, in the media arena, it pays to own and produce either all or part of one’s shows, like Oprah Winfrey.

That perception becomes very clear in the No. 2 slot, where Jerry Seinfeld sits with $60 million, earned mostly from reruns of his co-owned 1990’s sitcom Seinfeld.

Despite the fact that prime-time television shows win awards and critical acclaim, Lea Goldman, senior editor of Forbes, noted that daytime TV and
news is where stars make loads of money.

“Daytime personalities,” Lea Goldman noted, “dominate our list of TV’s top earners, with most competition among morning and afternoon talk-show hosts.”

Barbara Walters, another star who owns and co-produces her daytime show The View, ranked No. 18, with $12 million.

The rest of the Top 20 are:

6. Jay Leno, $32 million

7. Dr Phil McGraw, $30 million

8. ‘Judge’ Judy Sheindlin, $30 million

9. George Lopez, $26 million

10. Kiefer Sutherland, $22 million

11. Regis Philbin, $21 million

12. Tyra Banks, $18 million

13. Rachael Ray, $16 million,

14. Katie Couric, $15 million

15. Ellen DeGeneres, $15 million

16. Ryan Seacrest, $14 million

17. Matt Lauer, $13 million

18, Barbara Walters, $12 million

19. Diane Sawyer, $12 million

20. Meredith Vieira, $10 million