Sue Simmons on ‘Nightmare’ WNBC Departure

By Merrill Knox 

Eight months after her final newscast at WNBC, Sue Simmons opens up about being cut from the New York City NBC O&O in an extensive interview with our sister site, FishbowlNY. Simmons discusses the cutbacks at the station and her friendship with former co-anchor Chuck Scarborough, as well as the emotional turmoil of losing her seat at the anchor desk:

“The last several months from March to June was pretty much a nightmare for me,” Simmons admits. “Because after you’ve worked with your teams and your friends for that long it’s very difficult to come to terms with the fact that it’s not going to be anymore.”

Simmons adds that there was no bitterness as she began the “farewell tour” at WNBC. “How would you complain about 32 years at one job, in television, in New York City, and being part of the longest running anchor team in New York’s history?”

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If it were her choice, Simmons says viewers would still be watching Chuck Scarborough and her each night.

“Part of me was hoping that. Unfortunately, I got mixed signals and I thought at the very end that I was going to stay,” Simmons says. “It turned out to be not true. People start talking; I just got the feeling that they had softened their position. So that was a bit of a jolt at the end.”

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