What Is Elizabeth Vargas' Net Worth?
Elizabeth Vargas is an American journalist and author who has a net worth of $6 million. Elizabeth Vargas is known for her time as a co-anchor of "ABC World News Tonight" and "20/20" and the host of the 2021 revival of "America's Most Wanted." Vargas graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Journalism. While at the university, she began her broadcasting career working for WOMU-TV. From there, she went on to work for WBBM-TV in Chicago. After four years at WBBM, Elizabeth began working for NBC News, serving as a correspondent and substitute anchor. She then moved to ABC, where she was subsequently tapped to serve as a newsreader for "Good Morning America" before becoming the weekend anchor for "World News Tonight." She went on to co-anchor "World News Tonight" after the death of Peter Jennings, and she remained with the evening news program until 2006, when she resigned abruptly.
Until late 2017, Vargas hosted multiple specials on ABC and co-anchored "20/20." In December 2017, she announced that she was stepping down from her various jobs at ABC after 20 years with the network. In 2018, she began hosting "A&E Investigates," followed by Fox's "America's Most Wanted" in 2021, the syndicated series "iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas" in 2022, and NewsNation's "Elizabeth Vargas Reports" in 2023. Elizabeth has also guest-starred on the television series "Scandal" (2013), "Designated Survivor" (2016), and "Graves" (2017), and she appeared in the 2017 film "Life." In 2016, she published the memoir "Between Breaths: A Memoir of Panic and Addiction," which was a "New York Times" bestseller.
Early Life
Elizabeth Vargas was born Elizabeth Anne Vargas on September 6, 1962, in Paterson, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Anne Vargas, an Irish-American English teacher, and Rafael "Ralf" Vargas, an Italian-Spanish U.S. Army colonel from Puerto Rico. Elizabeth's siblings, Christopher and Amy, have tech jobs in Silicon Valley. Due to Ralf's military service, the family moved to Okinawa, Japan, when Elizabeth was a child, then they moved from post to post in Belgium, Germany, and the U.S. She earned her high school diploma from an American school in Heidelberg, Germany, where she became interested in journalism. Vargas graduated from the University of Missouri in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. While attending college, she was a student reporter for KOMU-TV as well as a student editor at the radio station KBIA.
Career
After graduating from college, Vargas took a job at the Reno CBS affiliate KTVN, then she was hired as the lead reporter at the Phoenix ABC affiliate KTVK-TV. Three years later, she began working at the Chicago CBS station WBBM-TV. Elizabeth stayed there until 1993, then she became a correspondent for "Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric" at NBC News. She later became a "Dateline NBC" correspondent and a substitute anchor on "Today" and weekend editions of "NBC Nightly News." In mid-1996, Vargas started working as a newsreader on ABC's "Good Morning America," and a year later, she was promoted to a prime time magazine show correspondent. In 2002, she began anchoring "20/20 Downtown," which was later renamed "Downtown" and "Primetime Monday." Elizabeth became the anchor for "World News Tonight Saturday," followed by "World News Tonight Sunday" in November 2003 and "20/20" in May 2004. She was the first-ever national evening news anchor of Irish-American and Puerto Rican ancestry. In April 2005, Vargas filled in for Peter Jennings on "World News Tonight" while he was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer until his death in August. In late 2005, Elizabeth and Bob Woodruff were named the new co-anchors of the program. In May 2006, Vargas announced that she was leaving "World News Tonight." She explained that her doctor encouraged her to cut back her work schedule due to a difficult pregnancy. In late 2006, Vargas returned to "20/20" and was the main host of "ABC News" specials. In 2013, she won a Peabody Award for her contributions to "20/20's" coverage of Hurricane Sandy.
Kris Connor/Getty Images
In May 2018, Elizabeth officially left ABC. The previous month, she had signed a production deal with A&E Originals, and she began hosting "A&E Investigates" in May 2018, followed by "The Untold Story" in April 2019. In 2021, Vargas became the host of Fox's "America's Most Wanted" revival, and she later began anchoring "News Cafe" on the FYI Network, which is owned by A&E. From September 2022 to September 2023, she was a guest anchor on weekday editions of "NewsNation Prime," then she starting hosting and executive producing the syndicated series "iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas." In early 2023, it was announced that she had been hired to host "Elizabeth Vargas Reports" on NewsNation.
Personal Life
Elizabeth married singer-songwriter Marc Cohn on July 20, 2002, and they welcomed two sons, Sam and Zach, before divorcing in 2014. During the marriage, Vargas was stepmother to Cohn's children from his marriage, Emily and Max. Elizabeth speaks both English and Spanish fluently and has said that she identifies with her Hispanic ancestry. She began practicing Transcendental Meditation in 2014 after being introduced to it by her fellow anchor George Stephanopoulos. Vargas has struggled with alcoholism throughout her life, and in her memoir, she stated that it stemmed from anxiety that began during her childhood. When her father left to fight in the Vietnam War, Elizabeth started having daily panic attacks, and an adult told her that anxiety was shameful, weak, and should be hidden. During a 2012 family vacation, Vargas realized that it was time to get help for her addiction. Though she checked into a Utah rehabilitation center, she left early and relapsed. In the fall of 2013, Vargas sought treatment in Tennessee, and in 2018, it was reported that she had been sober for four years.
Awards and Nominations
Vargas has been nominated for numerous News & Documentary Emmy Awards, winning for Special Classification for Outstanding News and Documentary Program Achievement – Programs and Outstanding News and Documentary Program Achievement – Programs & Segments for "ABC 2000: The Millennium." She earned a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for News – Regularly Scheduled, Bulletin or Breaking Report for "ABC World News Tonight with David Muir" in 2007. Elizabeth has received four ALMA Award nominations, taking home the prize for Outstanding Correspondent or Anchor of National News Program for "20/20" in 2002.
