Fox News host Geraldo Rivera has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against him by William Morris Endeavor. The talent agency sued Rivera claiming it is owed commission of more than $1 million. WME claims it negotiated Rivera’s deal with Fox News going back 12 years, but that he stopped paying them a 10 percent commission at the beginning of 2010. As the Hollywood Reporter reports, Rivera tells a different story:
He says that after a year with ABC, he had moved to CNBC and NBC in about 1998. When the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks occurred, Rivera says he anticipated there would be conflicts in the Middle East, and he asked to be sent there as a war correspondent. When NBC refused to do so, Rivera says they released him from his contract. He then went to Roger Ailes, CEO of Fox Television, whom he describes as a “longtime friend,” and made a deal to work for Fox News on Nov. 15, 2001. After his experience as a war correspondent, he returned home and began to do the show Geraldo at Large, which has continued in various time periods ever since. His contract at Fox, he said, also allows him to do a daily radio show that airs in New York and Los Angeles.
WME hasn’t commented on Rivera’s motion. As for that radio show, Rivera tweeted a picture yesterday taken from his home studio:
If you thought my http://t.co/1uG3FQcOAW show today was for the birds, you were right pic.twitter.com/QsKxhogd3M
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 20, 2013