What is José Díaz-Balart's Net Worth and Salary?
José Díaz-Balart is a journalist and television news anchor who has a net worth of $15 million. José Díaz-Balart hosts the morning MSNBC show "José Díaz-Balart Reports." His salary at MSNBC and NBC is $5 million per year. He also anchors "NBC Nightly News" on Saturdays and anchors breaking news and special events coverage for Telemundo. Previously, he anchored the weeknight editions of "Noticias Telemundo."
Early Life and Education
José Díaz-Balart was born on November 7, 1960 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Hilda Caballero Brunet and former Cuban politician Rafael Díaz-Balart y Gutiérrez, who worked for Fulgencio Batista's regime and fled to the US during the Cuban Revolution. Díaz-Balart has three brothers named Rafael Jr., Mario, and Lincoln. His uncle Waldo is an internationally recognized sculptor and painter, while his aunt Mirta was the first wife of Fidel Castro. For his higher education, Díaz-Balart attended New College of Florida in Sarasota.
Career Beginnings
Díaz-Balart began his professional career in radio before transitioning to print journalism in the 1980s, working for United Press International. In late 1984, he moved to television and became the Central American Bureau Chief of the Spanish International Network, later renamed Univision. A few years later, Díaz-Balart was among the journalists who founded the network Telemundo. Subsequently, he became a television news reporter in Miami, working for WTVJ from 1988 to 1996. After he left WTVJ, Díaz-Balart was hired by CBS and began anchoring "CBS This Morning." In the process, he became the first Cuban-American ever to host a network news program.
Telemundo
After working in English-language television for most of the 1990s, Díaz-Balart returned to Spanish-language network television in 2000 as the anchor of the new Telemundo morning program "Esta Mañana." A couple years later, he began hosting the Telemundo monthly interview program "Enfoque con José Díaz-Balart," on which he interviewed an array of political leaders and other newsmakers. Díaz-Balart returned to English-language television in 2003 to rejoin his former Miami station, WTVJ, as a news anchor. At the end of the decade, he became the anchor of Telemundo's evening newscast "Noticias Telemundo," a position he held until September 2021. Díaz-Balart also anchors Telemundo's breaking news and special events coverage, and hosts monthly specials.
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NBC and MSNBC
By 2010, Díaz-Balart was doing reporting for NBC. The following year, he substituted for Contessa Brewer on "MSNBC Live," making him the first US journalist to broadcast both English and Spanish newscasts on two networks at the same time, as he was also on Telemundo. Later, from 2014 to 2016, Díaz-Balart replaced Chris Jansing as the host of the 10 AM news hour on MSNBC. He also took over hosting duties on "The Daily Rundown," which was retitled "The Rundown with José Díaz-Balart" in 2014. As part of a broader restructuring of MSNBC's daytime programming, the show was moved under the "MSNBC Live" banner in 2015. Late that year, Díaz-Balart began serving as a fill-in anchor for the Saturday edition of "NBC Nightly News"; he became the official host of the program in the summer of 2016.
In 2016, Díaz-Balart moderated the Democratic Town Hall between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in Las Vegas, Nevada. Four years later, he co-moderated the first 2020 Democratic National Debate on both NBC and Telemundo. In 2021, after stepping down as the weeknight anchor of "Noticias Telemundo," Díaz-Balart began anchoring a new morning show on MSNBC entitled "José Díaz-Balart Reports." Meanwhile, he continued anchoring the Saturday edition of "NBC Nightly News."
Honors and Awards
Díaz-Balart has received a number of honors and accolades for his broadcasting work. For his work on Telemundo, he has earned multiple Emmy Awards. Díaz-Balart has also received four Hispanic Excellence in Journalism Awards and a Peabody Award. In 2010, he was recognized with the Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Sciences, and in 2012 was presented with the Outstanding Achievement in Hispanic Television Award at the 10th Annual Hispanic Television Summit. Among his other honors, Díaz-Balart was named the "Best International Journalist" in 2017 by GQ magazine.
Personal Life
With his wife Brenda, Díaz-Balart has two daughters named Katrina and Sabrina, whom he is raising to be fluent in both English and Spanish. The family resides in Miami.
