Award-winning journalist Jim Avila is an American television journalist who is widely recognized as the senior law and Justice Correspondent for ABC News. He previously worked as the national correspondent for NBC News.
Apart from his professional career, Jim who is ABC’s regular contributor of 20/20 prefers to keep the information of his personal life under the radar. As he maintains a low-key profile, he has successfully strike a balance between his personal and professional life.
Jim Avila’s Short Bio, Career, Net Worth
Television journalist Jim Avila was born on 1956 and celebrates his birthday on 26 July every year. He graduated from Glenbard East High School with the name of Jim Simon.
Veteran Jim Avila holds American nationality and belongs to mixed ethnicity, i.e., Lebanese and Mexican descent.
ABC News correspondent Jim, age 62, began his journalism career as a weekend anchor and the San Jose bureau chief for KPIX in San Francisco from 1976 to 1980. After that, Avila served as a general assignment reporter for WLS, the ABC owned station in Chicago from 1980 to 1984.
Later, he joined WBBM-TV as a general assignment reporter, where he covered Beirut War, the TWA hijacking, the Nicaraguan civil war and the Mexican earthquake.
Jim Avila joined KNBC as the investigative reporter in Los Angeles from 1994 to 1996. At KNBC, he served as the principal reporter on the O.J. Simpson criminal trial. For the trial coverage, the station won the 1995 Golden Mike Award and a 1996 Emmy Award.
Before being named National Correspondent at NBC, Avila was a Chicago, bureau correspondent. At NBC, he covered high-profile events including the shooting tragedies in Littleton, Jonesboro, Ark., Kentucky, and Paducah.
He then joined ABC as a National Correspondent for Nightly News in the year 2000, the position he still holds today. At ABC, he covered a wide range of domestic issues including the Sept. 2011 attacks and their aftermath and the D.C. sniper shootings.
Jim joined ABC News 20/20 as a correspondent in the year 2004 where he reported on a wide range of stories, including his unique brand of investigations. Currently, he serves as the regular correspondent for 20/20 and also reports for all other ABC News platforms.
Being a senior law and Justice Correspondent for ABC News, Jim earns a decent amount of salary from his career. However, the detailed figure of his net worth remained confined to media. Talking about the average salary of the ABC News Correspondent, it ranges from $93,429 at the 25th percentile to $117,963 at the 75th percentile, with top earners (the top 10%) earning more than $131,014.
Jim Avila Returns Home after Kidney Transplant
Back in late 2017, veteran Jim Avila was told by his doctors that he would need a new kidney due to diabetes-related kidney failure. For him, it was a big race as he had to find a kidney donor and need to transplant it within three months or else he would have to dialysis.
Jaie Avila, who is the youngest brother of Jim’s five siblings, is also a TV news reporter. Jaie agreed to donate one of his kidneys to Jim.
After that, the doctor immediately schedules the surgeries. In April 2018, Jim underwent the kidney transplant and now he has recovered from the kidney transplant surgery.
In an interview with TV Newser, Jim, while undergoing surgery, he said he felt lucky to have the support of his family and friend.
(Photo: Jim Avila's Twitter)
After returning home after the kidney transplant, Jim tweeted his appreciation of his brother and wrote his brother Jaie was moving account of his transplant and was the donor.
Is Jim A Married Man?
Though Jim is a married man, he has never talked about his wife and married life to the media. He has successfully strike a balance between his professional career and personal life.
However, he has mentioned about his three children in interviews but has not really mentioned their names. In an interview with TVNewser, while undergoing the kidney transplant, he mentioned about his children and said he felt like karma actually is real. All the good things he tried to do in his life paid off. He tried to be a good father and a good brother.
Talking about his father, his father's name is Jim Simon, a former president of the Mutual Broadcasting System and a veteran radio broadcaster.
He died in the year 1995 at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center after a massive stroke at the age of 61.
