The major networks are battling to sign reporter Ronan Farrow after he published a bombshell story on Harvey Weinstein in the New Yorker earlier this month.
Farrow's contract with NBC and MSNBC has expired, and although he is still freelancing there, he is putting off signing another exclusive deal with the network, Page Six reported.
"All of the major news networks are interested in signing Ronan," a source said. "His reporting brought down a giant and changed the worldwide conversation about sexual harassment."
ABC, CNN, and CBS are aggressively pursuing Farrow, according to TV insiders.
Farrow published an exclusive on Weinstein, the Hollywood mogul accused of sexually harassing and abusing dozens of women, in the New Yorker after top NBC executives initially killed the story, according to a report. Farrow's article revealed, among other revelations, that an Italian model secretly recorded Weinstein admitting that he groped her and did so often to other women as part of a police operation.
Farrow is not in a hurry to sign an exclusive deal with NBC after the network originally commissioned him to investigate Weinstein before refusing to run the scoop, forcing him to take it to another outlet.
NBC was reluctant to run the Weinstein exposé and network sources dissed his early reporting to several outlets, saying it "didn't meet the standards to go forward with a story" and "was nowhere close to what ultimately ran" in the New Yorker, Page Six reported.
Some NBC insiders claimed Farrow did not originally have a source willing to go on record and identify themselves, a charge that Farrow has strongly denied.
Page Six noted that MSNBC axed its show "Ronan Farrow Daily" in 2015 and put Farrow in a cubicle that could still be seen on-camera.
NBC declined Page Six's request for comment.