Gayle King

Television broadcast news

King began her career as a production assistant at WJZ-TV in Baltimore, where she met Oprah Winfrey, an anchor for the station at the time. King later trained as a reporter at WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.^[7][8] After working at WJZ, she moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where she was a weekend anchor and general-assignment reporter at WDAF-TV.^[9] In 1981, she was hired as a news anchor for WFSB in Hartford, Connecticut, where she worked for 18 years.^[8] Part of that time, she lived in Glastonbury, Connecticut.^[7]

Talk shows and morning news co-anchor

King worked as a special correspondent for The Oprah Winfrey Show. In 1991, King briefly co-hosted an NBC daytime talk show with Robin Wagner called Cover to Cover, which was canceled after 13 weeks.^[7] In 1997, she was offered her own syndicated talk show, The Gayle King Show, which was canceled after one season due to low ratings.^[10][11] In September 2006, King began to host The Gayle King Show on XM Satellite Radio.

On January 3, 2011, King began hosting a new show, also called The Gayle King Show, on OWN.^[12] The Gayle King Show ended on November 17, 2011, as a result of King going to CBS to co-anchor CBS This Morning alongside Charlie Rose^[13] and a series of third co-anchors including for a time Norah O'Donnell.^[14] The show succeeded in the ratings. King and Rose were noted as having good on-air chemistry.^[15][16] The two became friends as well, and remained friends even after Rose exited from CBS due to the sexual misconduct allegations against him.^[17][18][14]

Print journalism

King joined O, The Oprah Magazine as an editor in 1999.^[19]

Network news

Before joining CBS News, King worked as a special correspondent for Good Morning America.^[19] On November 10, 2011, King secured a deal with CBS to co-anchor CBS This Morning, beginning on January 9, 2012.^[13] She publicly called for CBS to have full transparency when it was learned CBS planned on keeping the findings of sexual abuse and harassment at the network private.^[20][21] She received recognition for remaining stoic during an interview with R. Kelly, who rose from his chair and began to scream and beat his chest in an interview discussing the sexual abuse allegations made against him.^[22][23][24]

In 2018, King was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.^[25] She was also chosen as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2019.^[26]

In 2020, shortly after the death of Kobe Bryant, King received social media criticism for a CBS This Morning interview with former WNBA player Lisa Leslie, in which King brought up Bryant's sexual assault allegations from 2003.^[27] Rapper Snoop Dogg was among those who criticized King, though he later apologized.^[27] She received support, particularly from long-time friend Oprah Winfrey.^[27] King said CBS had used an out-of-context excerpt from the interview. The network said in a statement that the excerpt was not reflective of the "thoughtful, wide-ranging interview" King had conducted with Leslie.^[28]

In January 2022, King had extended her contract with CBS News to continue as co-anchor of CBS Mornings.^[29]

On April 22, 2023, CNN announced that King will co-host with Charles Barkley on their weekly primetime show King Charles which debuted that fall and ended the next spring. King continued her role as co-anchor of CBS Mornings.^[30]

Space tourism

On February 27, 2025, it was announced that King would be one of the passengers on Blue Origin's eleventh flight to space under the New Shepard program, along with Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe, Kerianne Flynn and fellow journalist Lauren Sánchez. The Blue Origin NS-31 launch took place on April 14, 2025.^[35] This flight made King and Sánchez the first female journalists to fly to space as well as part of the first flight in which everyone onboard was female since Valentina Tereshkova's solo 1963 flight on Vostok 6.^[36][37]

Emmy Awards

Miscellaneous awards and honors