Russ Mitchell, weekend anchor of “CBS Evening News” and “The Early Show,” is leaving CBS to return to local television.
CBS News president David Rhodes announced Mitchell’s departure in an internal memo this morning, writing that the anchor has made a “great contribution” to the network but has decided to “take the weekends off” in 2012.
Mitchell’s departure from CBS comes as the network is preparing to launch “CBS This Morning.” Mitchell has been co-anchor of the Saturday edition of “The Early Show” for the past year.
TVSpy reports Mitchell will join WKYC, the NBC affiliate in Cleveland, as managing editor of evening news and lead anchor for the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts.
Read the full memo after the jump.
—– Original Message —–
From: Rhodes, David
To: @CND News
Sent: Wed Dec 21 11:03:25 2011
Subject: Russ Mitchell
After working with CBS News for nearly two decades, Russ Mitchell has decided to take the weekends off. Russ, who has made a great contribution to CBS News since joining in 1992, will leave at the end of the year to take another opportunity outside of CBS News.
Russ has served in so many capacities on our broadcasts. Russ has anchored the Weekend News and has been a national correspondent. For the last year, he made a reappearance as co-anchor of The Early Show on Saturday, a position he held for almost 10 years from 1997 to 2006. As a correspondent for “Eye to Eye,” he reported from Chile, France, Haiti, Indonesia and Russia.
On the first Sunday night in May of this year, when Jeff Fager and I were just getting started heading the division, I called Russ back to the office because we were about to report the killing of Osama bin Laden. He did a terrific job that night, reporting a remarkable event under great stress. Over the years, Russ has also reported on the devastation of Hurricane Frances, the Columbia shuttle disaster, the war in Bosnia, September 11th 2001, every presidential campaign since 1992 and four presidential inaugurations.
Russ will remain with us until the end of the year. Please join us in wishing him well in his new endeavor.