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Sue Simmons (born May 27, 1942) is an American retired
news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
who was best known for being the lead anchorwoman at
WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey� ...
in New York City from 1980 to 2012. Her contract with WNBC expired in June 2012 and WNBC announced that it would not renew it. Her final broadcast was on June 15, 2012, shortly after her 70th birthday.


Early life and education

Simmons grew up in the Manhattan neighborhood of
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
; her father was John Simmons, a jazz
bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...
whose contemporaries included
Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
,
Art Tatum Arthur Tatum Jr. (, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever. From early in his career, fellow musicians acclaimed Tatum's technical ability as extraordinary. Tatum a ...
,
John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
,
Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop ...
,
Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...
,
Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...
and
Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop ...
. She graduated from Julia Richman High School in 1961 and decided to work instead of going on to college.


Career


WNBC

She began her career as a consumer action reporter at WTNH-TV in
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...
. She was with
WBAL-TV WBAL-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the flagship property of Hearst Television, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to the company's sole ra ...
in
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
from 1974 to 1976 where she was an anchor for the station's
Action News ''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...
and Baltimore At One broadcasts. From 1976 to 1980 she was a reporter and anchor at
WRC-TV WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., serving as the market's NBC outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A television service, Class A Telemundo outlet W ...
in
Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
, an NBC owned-and-operated station. From 1980 to 2007, she was a co-anchor for WNBC's '' Live at Five'' news broadcast. She worked with several co-anchors, including Jack Cafferty,
Tony Guida Tony Guida (born November 5, 1941) is a New York-based local television and radio personality. He is currently a news anchor for WCBS Newsradio 880 and a business correspondent for CBS News. Life and career Guida began his career working as a r ...
,
Matt Lauer Matthew Todd Lauer (; born December 30, 1957) is a former American television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News. After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the ne ...
, Dean Shepherd, Jim Rosenfield, Perri Peltz, and David Ushery. In 2007, ''Live at Five'' broadcast for the final time. Weeknights at 11 p.m., she co-anchored with Chuck Scarborough. On March 7, 2012, WNBC announced that it would not renew its contract with Simmons; the contract expired in June. Simmons' final broadcast was on June 15, 2012; she received farewells from long time co-workers, as well as numerous sports figures and celebrities. Simmons was replaced on the 11 p.m. newscast by Shiba Russell. ''Chuck and Sue'' (as they were known in New York) were together since Simmons' arrival at WNBC—the longest run for an anchor team in New York City television history. She was one of the highest paid local anchors in New York, making $5 million a year. Simmons was referenced in the song ''
Traffic and Weather ''Traffic and Weather'' is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on Virgin Records in April 2007. Background While previous Fountains of Wayne albums saw lead singer Chris Collingwood and bassis ...
'' by the power pop band
Fountains of Wayne Fountains of Wayne is an American Rock music, rock band that formed in New York City in 1995. The band included founding members Chris Collingwood, Adam Schlesinger, Jody Porter, and Brian Young (drummer), Brian Young. They released six album ...
. On June 23, 2017, Simmons returned to WNBC for a tribute to Gabe Pressman, longtime reporter for the station who died earlier in the day at age 93.


On-air profanity

On May 12, 2008, as a live news teaser was played, Simmons was heard loudly exclaiming, "The fuck are you doing?" It was later revealed that her remark was directed at distracted co-anchor Chuck Scarborough. She later apologized on-air for her inappropriate language. The incident has been mocked in several sketches on CBS's ''
Late Show with David Letterman ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...
''. The clip was later featured in a 2021 episode of
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
's ''
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver ''Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' (often abridged as ''Last Week Tonight'') is an American news satire late-night talk show hosted by comedian John Oliver. The half-hour-long show premiered in the end of April 2014 on HBO and currently has ...
''. Simmons has stated that she was normally notified proactively when the newscast was broadcasting live, because she had a reputation for being caught on the air during candid moments. On that particular occasion, she had not been notified, and she exclaimed the profanity while attempting to get the attention of Scarborough, who was preoccupied with his computer. Later, during the newscast, Simmons apologized for using "a word that many people find offensive. "It was a mistake I made and I'm truly sorry."


Back surgery

In November and December 2010, Simmons was away from her job while she underwent back surgery. On January 3, 2011, she returned to work. However, when she returned from surgery she was no longer a part of the 6 p.m. newscast and only co-anchored the 11 p.m. newscast.


Acting

Sue Simmons made her acting debut as herself in the fourteenth season premiere episode of the NBC
legal drama Legal drama, also called courtroom drama, is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in wh ...
, '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''. Simmons went on to guest star as herself on NBC comedy series ''
30 Rock ''30 Rock'' is an American satire, satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for ''Saturday Night Live' ...
''. She has also appeared in other television series and films in the role of a
newscaster A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news broadcasting, news program on televisio ...
, including: '' The First Wives Club'' (1996), '' Exiled: A Law & Order Movie'' (1998) and '' Elementary'' (2012).


References


External links

*
Sue Simmons's May 2008 On-air profanity & apology
at
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmons, Sue 1942 births American television reporters and correspondents Television anchors from Baltimore Living people Television anchors from New York City Television anchors from Washington, D.C. American women television journalists Julia Richman Education Complex alumni 21st-century American women