Connie Chung
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
Graceful, reassuring, well-groomed TV newscaster with a beautiful speaking voice who, on June 1, 1993, on CBS, became the first woman to co-anchor a major network's national news broadcast since Barbara Walters was teamed with Harry Reasoner on ABC in 1976. The youngest of ten children born to Chinese immigrants (and the only one born in the US), Chung began as a cub reporter in the Washington DC area. Signed on by CBS in 1971 she eventually began covering stories for the "CBS Evening News" before becoming a co-anchor for network affiliate KNXT in Los Angeles in 1976. She also became a substitute anchor for the national evening news and did many weekend and morning broadcasts.
Won over to NBC in 1983, Chung performed similar duties on the "NBC Nightly News" and its parallel daytime broadcasts. She also hosted a number of "NBC News Reports on America," but unfortunately, such installments as "Life in the Fat Lane," "Stressed to Kill" and "Everybody's Doing It" suggested to some that she was essentially a reporter of "soft" news: one TV wag, blithely forgetting her years of reporting, dubbed her "Connie Funn."
Moving back to CBS in 1989, Chung became the network's regular anchor for the Sunday edition of the "CBS Evening News" and often substituted during the week for Dan Rather. She also hosted several moderately successful primetime news magazine shows ("Saturday Night with Connie Chung," "Face to Face with Connie Chung") which featured her covering one of the show's stories herself or conducting an interview with some newsworthy figure. Despite the ups and downs of her career, Chung has always combined a solid professionalism and smooth delivery with a natural, relaxed charm, earning her perenially high marks in media surveys. It was precisely this brand of likability which led CBS (known around the newsroom as the "Connie Broadcasting Service") to team her with the veteran Rather in an attempt to boost the evening newscast's ratings from second place to the top spot. The result was ultimately unsuccessful and Chung was dropped (somewhat unceremoniously in the eyes of many) from the broadcast, but she has certainly made her mark, perhaps most controversially when she House speaker Newt Gingrich's mother to state that her son considered First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton a "bitch." Married to TV talk show host Maury Povich.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Writer (Special)
Special Thanks (Special)
Life Events
1969
Began her career in television as a copyperson at WTTG-TV in Washington DC; responsibilities included some phone answering
1971
Joined CBS News; worked as a general assignment political reporter in the Washington Bureau
1974
Named a correspondent for CBS News
1976
Served as a news co-anchor for KNXT (now KCBS) in Los Angeles; was a substitute anchor for the "CBS Morning News" and for weekend and evening broadcasts
1983
Moved to NBC in August as a correspondent and anchor; helmed the Saturday edition of the "NBC Nightly News", as well as "NBC News at Sunrise" and "NBC Digests"
1984
Served as a floor reporter at both national conventions during the presidential election campaign
1988
Served as a political analyst and podium correspondent at the national party conventions during the presidential election campaign
1989
Left NBC; returned to CBS on April 11, signing a three-year contract for close to six million dollars; began anchoring the Sunday "CBS Evening News"
1993
Joined Dan Rather in co-anchoring the "CBS Evening News" beginning on June 1
1995
Left "CBS Evening News" in May
1996
Announced plans to co-host half-hour news information show with husband Maury Povich for DreamWorks Television
1997
DreamWorks announced it was abandoning plans for proposed show hosted by Chung and Povich
1997
Signed three-year contract with ABC News to serve as contributor to ABC's primetime newsmagazines (November)
1998
Began appearing on "20/20" as a contributor
2001
Landed interview with disgraced US congressman Gary Condit for ABC
2002
Moved from ABC to CNN; hired to host one-hour primetime show
2003
Released from her CNN primetime show and replaced by Aaron Brown
Family
Companions
