CBS News anchor Josh Elliott is departing from the network, we have learned today. Elliott, who would've been with the network a full year on March 1st, is no longer a part of the CBS News family after originally being brought on to serve as the daytime anchor for CBSN, the network's digital streaming news service. CBS released an official statement announcing the departure and wishing Elliott the best in his future endeavors. And it appears the whole controversy was sparked after an on-air gaffe by the anchor.
The kerfuffle seems to have started when Josh Elliott announced on Friday that he would be departing CBSN. The move was planned and Elliott was going to be taken off of the online service to work more on long-form reporting and coverage for CBS' traditional news programs. Elliott made his damning error by combining his announcement with the following statement:
Although knowing how things work around here, I may see you again on Monday morning.
Flash forward to now, and People magazine is saying Josh Elliott is out the door. The move seems odd, seeing as previous reports stated the initial reasoning behind the move was to propel the anchor into a spotlight that served a larger audience. While there has been no official reasoning behind the departure, we can assume that Elliott's statement was not liked by someone higher up in the network. I can't imagine many executives enjoy the implication that they are incompetent in handling the on-air talent.
CBS was not the first home for Josh Elliott. The anchor first began his high-profile career as a writer for Sports Illustrated in the early 2000's, and his writing landed him a gig at ESPN, where he served as a panelist for shows like Around The Horn and Jim Rome Is Burning. Eventually, the panelist became an anchor when Elliott moved over to ABC's Good Morning America, where he later broke his contract to hop onto NBC in 2014. Due to a non-compete clause, Elliott only covered sporting events until he was able to eventually join The Today Show as a sports correspondent, which ended when he departed for CBS last year. It's safe to say the anchor is no stranger to switching jobs!
Weirdly enough, when Josh Elliott left NBC, there was talk of the anchor getting a large promotion and reports claimed plans were in place at NBC for him to replace Matt Lauer on Today. So that departure was as equally shocking for NBC as the news today from CBS is for Elliott and everyone else. While there are some parallels between the two, it's worth mentioning that Elliott has been the one to leave past jobs and has not previously been fired from any of his former high profile gigs, which is what makes this news particularly stand out.
Obviously, Josh Elliott is a hot commodity among the news-reporting world, so would CBS really fire him for a remark made in poor taste? I'm sure as the days continue, more will come to light on the issue. We will keep you updated if any more drama ensues! In the meantime, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what's coming to the small screen in the near future.
