Dan Rather Returns to CBS Airwaves Nearly Two Decades After His Exit
“Without apology or explanation, I miss CBS,” the former ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor said. “I’ve missed it since the day I left there.”
Published April 29 2024, 3:11 p.m. ET
Dan Rather’s reported net worth is in the high eight figures, but then again, this is a guy who was one of the “Big Three” national nightly news anchors, joining Tom Brokaw of NBC News and Peter Jennings of ABC News. Of the three, Dan manned a national nightly news program the longest, spending 24 years behind the CBS Evening News desk.
This journalist’s CBS News tenure, however, ended abruptly in the mid-2000s after he filed a 60 Minutes II report about then-President George W. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard record based on documents that couldn’t be authenticated later. He left the CBS Evening News desk in 2005 and left CBS the following year. And until his interview for CBS Sunday Morning, which aired on Sunday, April 28, 2024, he hadn’t appeared on the network since.
Dan Rather’s reported net worth reflects his decades as a journalist.
Dan’s journalism career started in 1950 when he became an Associated Press reporter in Huntsville, Texas, according to his Moody College of Communication bio. After stints in various Houston newsrooms, Dan joined CBS News as its Southwest bureau chief in 1962. His time at CBS News included jobs as bureau chief in London and Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), anchor of CBS Reports, and weekend anchor of CBS Evening News. He anchored the weekday broadcasts of CBS Evening News from 1981 to 2005.
Dan Rather
Journalist, commentator, former anchor
Net worth: $70 million (reported)
Dan Rather is a journalist and commentator who anchored the CBS Evening News from 1981 to 2005.
Date of birth: Oct. 31, 1931
Birthplace: Wharton, Texas
Parents: Daniel Irvin Rather Sr., Bryl Veda Page
Education: B.A., Sam Houston State University
Wife: Jean Goebel (m. 1957)
Children: Robin Rather, Dan Martin Rather
Following his CBS exit, Dan hosted Dan Rather Reports and The Big Interview with Dan Rather on AXS TV and launched a Substack newsletter titled “Steady.” He has also continued writing books, including 2013’s Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News and 2017’s What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism. According to Celebrity Net Worth, his net worth stands at $70 million.
The journalist says he has missed CBS since the day he left.
“Dan Rather, CBS News, became sorta all part of my name, a part of my identity,” the longtime newsman said in his CBS Sunday Morning interview, as he returned to the network’s airwaves for the first time since 2006. “Without apology or explanation, I miss CBS. I’ve missed it since the day I left there.”
Now 92, Dan is reflecting on his career. “All I know is, it’s the only thing I ever wanted to be was a reporter,” he said. “I get up every morning, and as soon as my feet hit the ground, I say, where’s the story?”
He also has his legacy in mind. “Think about what you did as a person. Those important questions of, who am I? Why am I here? What can I contribute? Those are the important questions, not how well one did or didn’t do as anchor or managing editor of the CBS Evening News.”