NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Gayle King has reportedly been 'buttering up' Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to be the opening guests on her forthcoming CNN show. The 68-year-old host has teamed up with pro-basketball legend, Charles Barkley, 60, to ink a new contract with the cable news network to host the weekly prime-time show ‘King Charles’.
As per reports, Gayle King needs the new program to go off like a rocket as her primary show, 'CBS Mornings', is consistently lagging significantly behind competitors ‘Good Morning’ and ‘Today’ in the ratings. “Gayle has privately promoted her reputation of landing top TV interviews despite CBS Mornings’ poor performance. So she needs to bag a big get on the new show to back up her bluster,” an insider told Radar Online. Now, in order to get the blockbuster start, King is privately making efforts to lock down the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as her first guests.
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'She wants the bang the Sussexes can provide'
“Gayle is buttering up Harry and Meghan with hopes they’ll get her new show off to a running start,” the tipster said, adding that she has been wooing the Sussexes since their heated 2021 interview in which they called the Royal Family abusive and racist. King recently claimed that the former Royal couple is “in a really good place” and Meghan made the “best choice” by skipping King Charles’ coronation. “Gayle knows they’re alienating themselves even further from the royal family but she’s openly supporting them to gain their favor,” said the insider claimed, adding “She wants the bang the Sussexes can provide —no matter the cost to them!”
As per previous reports, Chris Licht, the CEO of CNN, is betting a lot on ‘King Charles’ as he wants to salvage the ratings-starved network that recently fired Don Lemon. For the show, King signed a $12 million per year contract with CNN. Earlier, a source told Radar Online that King was offered to "write her own cheque" as a demand after the network experienced an existential crisis due to a staff mutiny and severe internal conflict. “Everyone has been told there’s no money, yet they’re managing to scrape up the cash to pay Gayle King. It’s incredibly tone-deaf, as well as being rude to the hard-working people who’ve been toiling here for years!” the tipster said.
'Gayle and Charles will be the highest-paid on-air pair'
This new deal has made King the 'highest-paid person' at CNN, with Charles, who is already earning an astounding $10 million as a co-host of 'Inside the NBA' at TBS. “Gayle will not only be the highest-paid person at CNN but she and Charles will also be the highest-paid on-air pair. It will also make Gayle one of the highest people on television when you add her CBS contract into the mix,” the insider dished. It was also revealed that King, who earns more than $13 million per year at CBS, happily accepted the offer as “at CNN she would instantly get the benefit of a massive marketing campaign and the full focus of a prime-time spotlight. She’s also a big fan of Charles — and the feeling is mutual.”
