Larry King's Big Deal

Tue., Jan. 15, 2002 4:40 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Larry King's going to get plenty of money to keep lobbing softballs for the next few years.

CNN says it is reupping King for another four-year term. Although the cable news network would not confirm the amount of the gabmeister's deal, the New York Post reports that with incentives, the new contract is worth upwards of $56 million, putting King up there with NBC's Katie Couric as one of the highest paid TV personalities in broadcast history.

According to the Associated Press, King will get $7 million in base salary and can make up to $14 million annually when stock options and other perks (including a production deal with CNN to develop new shows beyond Larry King Live) are figured in.

The 68-year-old suspender aficionado will also reportedly have the continued use of the AOL Time Warner company jet. (The Emmy winner frequently shuttles between CNN berths in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.)

King's reps would not discuss the deal. King himself was running with the Olympic torch in Los Angeles Tuesday and not available for comment.

With reports circulating that NBC was trying to lure King to its cable outlets, MSNBC and CNBC, and that King was spotted dining with Fox News honcho Roger Ailes, CNN was desperate to lock down the veteran yakker. King's Larry King Live--a CNN staple since 1985--is the network's highest-rated show and neck-and-neck with Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, hosted by Bill O'Reilly, as the top-rated prime-time cable talk show.

King's nightly show averaged about 1 million viewers.

The cable news wars have become especially vicious in recents months as CNN, Fox News and MSNBC/CNBC have stolen personalities in an attempt to gain ratings. CNN lured anchor Paula Zahn away from Fox News to headline a morning newscast. CNN also hired mild-mannered newsman Aaron Brown to anchor its nightly edition.

Fox countered by enticing CNN's legal analyst Greta Van Susteren to ditch the network to her own chatfest on Fox News. The upstart Fox also got Geraldo Rivera to leave his CNBC talk show to become a war correspondent in Afghanistan. MSNBC, on the other hand, hired former GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes to field his own talk show. Both Fox and NBC have denied trying to land King.

With his new deal, King will make about as much as Katie Couric, who just inked a five-year deal reportedly worth $13 million annually, and Barbara Walters, who signed a five-year, $60 million deal with ABC in September 2000.

It's good to be the King.