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Call her “Show Me the Money, Honey.”
CNBC’s No. 1 star, Maria “Money Honey” Bartiromo, with her hefty five-year contract set to expire late this year, is in play and is shopping herself around to rival networks, sources familiar with the situation tell The Post.
Bartiromo, 45, whose hustle and knack for landing exclusive interviews with newsmakers hasn’t been able to stem the steady decline in ratings for CNBC overall and her show in particular, is taking advantage of an open “negotiating window” and has talked to Fox Business Network and CNN, among others, sources said.
The business TV dynamo reached out and hired mega-talent agency CAA earlier this year. She is working with the agency’s boss, Richard Lovett, considered one of the top TV and Hollywood agents, and Olivia Metzger, a former CNBC talent scout, who heads CAA’s Big Apple office.
The Brooklyn-born Bartiromo famously was the first woman to report live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She has been with CNBC since 1993 and is said to earn between $2 million and $3 million a year.
A spokeswoman for FBN said: “There are no serious discussions going on.” CNN had no comment. A spokesman for CNBC said: “She is under contract with CNBC.”
Reached Friday as she was flying back from Lake Tahoe, where she reported from the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament, Bartiromo, in an email, told The Post: “I don’t have any comment on anything right now.”
The intrepid brunette referred further questions to CAA.
It is an interesting time to be negotiating a new deal at ratings-challenged CNBC.
NBC News Chairwoman Pat Fili-Krushel, on the job for about a year, has been looking to make her mark on the news division, bringing in Deborah Turness to run NBC News. While CNBC doesn’t report to Turness, CNBC president Mark Hoffman, it is clear, has been shaking up his schedule, looking to refresh some of its nightly shows.
A June Nielsen ratings report revealed heavy declines at some dayside shows. A new early evening show is in the works, with Hoffman talking to Harry Smith as the possible host of a roundtable on stock moves of the day.
The network also commissioned a slew of reality shows to air in prime time, including “Car Chasers,” about guys who flip cars, and “Treasure Detectives,” about how to spot fakes.
Network ratings have been on the slide among the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, largely because people tend to watch less market news when the stock market is steady, and more when there are a series of peaks and troughs.
“It would be good news for Fox if she came over, but bad news for her,” one business news source said, explaining that FBN’s freer debate style is very different from CNBC’s more organized teleprompter approach.
Bartiromo’s teaming with high-powered Lovett at CAA could be a sign that after 20 years at CNBC she is yearning to take her career beyond business news. On CNBC, she currently hosts the two-hour “Closing Bell” and a syndicated show, “On the Money with Maria Bartiromo.” She also writes a monthly column for USA Today.