Oprah Winfrey has already proven her power when she recently conquered Forbes' annual “Celebrity 100 Power List” as the most influential celebrity in the world. Moreover, she is also hailed as the highest paid talent on television in the United States.
According to TV Guide magazine's July 23 issue, the award-winning host of
The Oprah Winfrey Show receives a salary of $260 million a year just to do her acclaimed daily talk show, taking home more than five times the earnings of
American Idol's notorious host
Simon Cowell, who earns $45 million.
Following Cowell at number 2 is Judge Judy Sheindlin, who earns $30 million a year. In fourth place, media personality Katie Couric sets in with her controversial paycheck of $15 million.
Scrubs star Zack Braff rounds up the top five with a salary of $6.3 million per year.
The list also includes other notable celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres with a salary of $5 million,
Jerry Springer with an estimate of $3 million to 4 million, and Tyra Banks, who earns $3.5 million.
Although some of these celebrities' rise to stardom has been controversial, Winfrey's journey fame and fortune remains to be historical and record-breaking.
Born and raised in rural poverty, Winfrey became a millionaire at the age of 32 when
The Oprah Winfrey Show went national. She was able to negotiate ownership of the program due to its revenues and high ratings, and eventually earned her nine figures a year. At age 41, she crossed a new milestone for having a net worth of $340 million replacing Bill Cosby as the only African American on the Forbes 400 list. Accordingly, she was able to create an empire with her numerous TV and film projects, magazines, a radio channel, and a successful online site, among others. At present, Winfrey's net worth is over $1.5 billion.
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Reuters
(Image courtesy of MSNBC)