Don Imus' Fox Business Deal Worth Around $3 Million

The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove raised some eyebrows earlier this week when he speculated that Don Imus' contract with Fox Business Network was worth more than $25 million:

Fox News czar Roger Ailes has been wooing the radio jock for the past two years, and finally pried him loose from a reported $25 million contract with the rural-oriented RFD-TV network, flashing presumably bigger bucks to simulcast Imus' Citadel-produced radio show and lift Fox Business Network out of the ratings basement

The contract is actually valued at around $3 million, according to insiders with knowledge of the deal.

The arrival of a big-name star like Imus is expected to boost the fledgling network's visibility and ratings — already, his debut was one of the most-watched programs in Fox Business history and beat the timeslot's average by 1500 percent. But insiders also say that there wasn't much wooing going on, as Imus, too, gets more than just $3 million out of the deal: the chance to be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers on a national TV network for the first time since his controversial 2007 remarks got him removed from MSNBC.