MATT LAUER TOPS TV ANCHORS WITH $17 MILLION PER YEAR

When Katie Couric's five-year, $65 million contract with CBS News expired earlier this year, one of the reported reasons that the network elected to part company with its nightly news anchor was that Couric simply had become too expensive to keep. Her "Evening News" replacement, Scott Pelley, is said to be earning less than $5 million per year.

Meanwhile, some of Couric's other colleagues in the television news business appear to be doing just fine.