What Is Ted Koppel's Net Worth?
Ted Koppel is a British-born American newscaster, producer, and author who has a net worth of $30 million. Ted Koppel began his professional career as a teacher and was then hired to work at WMCA Radio in New York. He began working on "Flair Reports" for ABC Radio in 1963, becoming the youngest correspondent ever hired by ABC. Throughout the '60s and '70s, he worked as a war correspondent and U.S. State Department correspondent. In 1980, Ted began hosting "Nightline," a job which he performed for 25 years, stepping down in 2005.
Post-"Nightline," Koppel has served as a special correspondent for a number of programs, including "Rock Center," and for BBC News. He has also written columns for "The New York Times," appeared on a number of radio programs on NPR, and served as the managing editor for the Discovery Channel. Ted has been a special contributor on "CBS News Sunday Morning" since 2015, and he executive produced the 1990 special "The 21st Century: World Without Walls?" and the 2006 Emmy-winning TV series "Koppel on Discovery." Ted has also published books such as "Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public" (2000) and "Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath" (2015).
Early Life
Ted Koppel was born Edward James Martin Koppel on February 8, 1940, in Nelson, Lancashire, England. His Jewish parents, Alice and Edwin, fled Germany after Adolf Hitler rose to power, and during their time in Germany, Edwin ran a tire-manufacturing company. The U.K.'s Home Secretary invited Koppel's parents to move the factory to England, and they moved it to Lancaster in 1936. When war broke out in the late 1930s, Edwin was imprisoned for over a year on the Isle of Man after being declared an enemy alien. Ted was born during this time, and Alice took menial jobs and sold her jewelry to provide for him. After Edwin was released, he wasn't allowed to work in England, and the family immigrated to the U.S. when Koppel was 13 years old. While living in England, Ted attended Derbyshire's Abbotsholme School. After the family moved to the U.S., Edwin opened a tire factory, and Alice became a pianist and singer. During his youth, Koppel's hero was Edward R. Murrow, whose radio broadcasts about the bombing of London inspired Ted to pursue a career in journalism. In the U.S., Koppel studied at the New York private preparatory school the McBurney School, then he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University at the age of 20. There, he joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity's Alpha Chi chapter. Ted later attended Stanford University, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in political science and mass-communications research.
Career
Koppel worked as a teacher before landing a job at "The New York Times" as a copyboy and being hired to write for New York's WMCA Radio. In 1963, he began working for ABC Radio News on the "Flair Reports" daily program. That year Ted's coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy gained him attention from the national news audience. In the '60s, he also covered the civil rights movement in Alabama and served as ABC News' Vietnam War correspondent before becoming the network's U.S. State Department correspondent and Hong Kong bureau chief. Koppel traveled to China with President Richard Nixon in the early '70s, and he was subsequently featured in the USC US-China Institute documentary series "Assignment: China."
By the mid-1970s, Koppel had become the anchor of the Saturday edition of "ABC Evening News." In 1979, Ted was the lead reporter on "Second to None?," an 11-part series about the dangers of nuclear war that earned him an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award. From 1980 to 2005, he hosted the late-night news program "Nightline," and he won several News & Documentary Emmy Awards for the show.
Since leaving "Nightline" in 2005, Koppel has written op-eds for "The New York Times," worked as a commentator for the NPR programs "All Things Considered," "Morning Edition," and "Day to Day" and as a contributing analyst for BBC World News America, and he was a special correspondent on the NBC program "Rock Center." In 2016, he was hired by "CBS Sunday Morning" as a special contributor. Ted also spent more than two years as the Discovery Channel's managing editor.
Nightline Salary
At the time he stepped down from Nightline in 2005, Ted was in the final year of a 5-year, $50 million contract with the network that paid him a salary of $10 million per year.
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Personal Life
Ted married Grace Anne Dorney on May 17, 1963, and they welcomed four children together, Tara, Deirdre, Andrew, and Andrea. Sadly, Andrew was found dead in a New York City apartment in May 2010 at the age of 40, reportedly after a day of binge-drinking, and a toxicology report revealed that he had illicit drugs in his system at the time of his death. Ted and Grace issued a statement about Andrew's death that read, "Our son, Andrew, was a brilliant, caring man, whose loss we will mourn for the rest of our lives." Koppel has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 1963, and he is friends with Henry Kissinger, who also moved to the U.S. as a child. Kissinger was one of "Nightline's" most frequent guests during Koppel's time on the show, and Ted once said of him, "Henry Kissinger is, plain and simply, the best secretary of state we have had in 20, maybe 30 years – certainly one of the two or three great secretaries of state of our century. I'm proud to be a friend of Henry Kissinger. He is an extraordinary man. This country has lost a lot by not having him in a position of influence and authority."
Honors and Awards
Koppel has won numerous News & Documentary Emmy Awards, and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He has earned two Daytime Emmy nominations, winning for Outstanding Morning Program for "CBS News Sunday Morning" in 2019. His other nomination was for Special Classification of Program Achievement for the "ABC Notebook" episode "Learn To Read" (1987). Ted won the Personal Award at the 1985 Peabody Awards, and he earned a Bronze Wrangler for Factual Narrative for the "ABC News Nightline" segment "The Cowboy Way" at the 2004 Western Heritage Awards. Koppel received three Television Critics Association Award nominations, taking home the prize for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information for "ABC News Nightline" in 1985 and 1986; he was also nominated for a Career Achievement Award (1987). Ted has won nine Overseas Press Club Awards, eight Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards, and two George Polk Awards. He has received honorary doctorates from Duke University (Doctor of Humane Letters, 1987) and the University of Southern California (Doctor of Laws degree, 2006). In 2004, Koppel was honored with the Radio Television Digital News Association's Paul White Award.
Real Estate
In 2013, Koppel put his Maryland home on the market for $3.945 million. Located in St. Mary's County, many believe that the estate is Maryland's oldest home. The property includes "a main house with four bedrooms, 2.5 baths; two one-bedroom guest houses; 3,000 feet along the waterfront; historic buildings in various states of repair; and modern amenities like a pool, a boathouse and lighted tennis courts." Ted ultimately did not find a buyer for the property even after several price reductions. He still owns the home today.
