Television networks are already racing for the first interview with Amanda Knox following her acquittal on Monday.
The American student was found not guilty of murdering her British roommate after spending the last four years in jail. The verdict immediately set Twitter abuzz with guesses about who would land the coveted interview, which named Diane Sawyer, Matt Lauer and Elizabeth Vargas as contenders.
In a race similar to the contest for the first Casey Anthony interview, ABC, NBC and CBS all had representatives in Italy vying for Knox's first interview. The New York Daily News reported that media heavyweights like Lauer, Vargas, who has covered the case from the beginning, and CBS’s Peter Van Sant, who has followed the trial for "48 Hours," were there interviewing Knox’s friends and family before the verdict came down.
The New York Post even reported rumors that an American news organization had a private jet waiting in Perugia, Italy, where the trial took place, ready to whisk Knox back to the States in exchange for the first interview.
Though networks have vowed not to pay licensing fees to subjects for interviews, the Guardian predicts that Knox stands to make as much as $20 million (the equivalent of £10 million) from movie and book deals. Her stepfather has already said that she plans to write a book about her experiences because "because that's her way of dealing with things." Knox's trial and her roommate's violent murder have
already generated a media storm which included books and a Lifetime movie starring Hayden Pannetiere.
