Geraldo Rivera

Geraldo was born “Gerald Michael Riviera” on 4 July 1943 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. He married “Linda Coblentz” in 1965 but they eventually divorced. He began his broadcasting career in 1970 for “Eyewitness News” on "WABC-TV” in New York City up to 1975. On 14 December 1971 he married his 2nd wife “Edie Vonnegut” and they divorced in 1975. He was a host on "Good Morning, America” from 1973 to 1976. He was the host of his first own talk show in 1974 titled “Geraldo Rivera: Goodnight, America” until 1978. His 3rd wife was “Sherryl Raymond” whom he married on 31 December 1976, they had 1 child and divorced in 1984. He was a correspondent for “Good Morning, America” from 1975 to 1977. He was also a correspondent and senior producer of the ”ABC” series “20/20" the newsmagazine show from 1978 to 1985 when he was fired. On 11 July 1987 he married wife #4 “C.C. Dyer” and they had 2 children together and divorced in 2000.

Then came his syndicated show “Geraldo” from 1987 to 1998. His very first guest on his premiere episode of his show on 14 September 1987 was Model “Marla Hanson” who had her face severely scarred up by a jealous ex-boyfriend. Geraldo’s most controversial show the first season was the episode titled "Men in Lace Panties and the Women Who Love Them”. His biggest record breaking episode is said to be the one in 1988 when a brawl broke out with the leader of the White Aryan Resistance Youth and a black activist named “Roy Innis”. In this show a chair was thrown that hit Geraldo in the face and broke his nose. Since it was a taped show the media got wind of the excitement that night and many stories came out before the show finally aired that made a lot of people want to see what really happened for themselves. There was a close-up photo of Geraldo on the front page of the November 1988 issue of "Newsweek” magazine showing how badly his face and nosed looked after the fight. He was selected as one of the "50 most Beautiful People ” in the world in 1991 by “ People” magazine. In a 1993 interview he gave to the "Seattle Times” he stated this: "I'm so much a part of the popular culture now. I'm a punch line every night on one of the late night shows I'm used as a generic almost in all the editorials and commentaries and certainly all the books about whether the news media has gone too far. It's just that, what is a review going to do to me? They either like me or don't like me, but I'm always interesting to watch”

His live 2-Hour special broadcast on the opening of "Al Capone's" secret vault became TV's highest-rated syndicated special ever. In 1994 he began hosting another show on “CNBC TV ” titled “Rivera Live”. In 1996 he decided to change a lot of aspects of his syndicated talk show to include renaming the show to “The Geraldo Rivera Show”. He signed a $30 Million 6-year deal in 1997 with “NBC TV” to be a news journalist. Because of either declining viewership or because of his deal signed with NBC in 1997 his syndicated show finally ended on 30 June 1998 after a 11 year run. He began working for the “FOX News Channel” in 2001 as a war correspondent in Afghanistan. He married his 5th wife “Erica Levy” and they have had 1 child together so far. In October 2005 he began another talk show on the “FOX News Channel” on Saturday and Sunday nights at 5 PM titled “At Large with Geraldo Rivera”.