Scott Pelley, the longest-serving current network evening news anchor, is out at the CBS Evening News and will move to 60 Minutes permanently.
Anthony Mason anchored the program last Friday, while Jeff Glor filled in both yesterday and today as Pelley is on assignment for 60 Minutes.
A network source confirms that Mason will become the interim anchor of the Evening News, but says that Pelley will return to the program in the future. It’s unknown when or in what capacity.
A source also says that Pelley had arranged to have his office cleaned out on Tuesday.
Page Six was first to report the news Tuesday night.
Despite the measured tone and gravitas Pelley brings to the anchor desk, the CBS Evening News has been mired in third place for quite some time (including for many years before Pelley became anchor), and is currently posting the most significant year-over-year ratings declines of the three evening newscasts.
Pelley has also been a vocal critic of the sitting administration, a tactic not traditionally taken by evening news anchors.
“How far does it go?’ Is the next enemy of the American people a choreographer, painter, filmmaker, poet a songwriter?,” Pelley said while accepting the Texas Medal of Arts award this past March. “What is the ‘media’ Mr. Trump speaks of? ‘The Media’ is the conversation of 300 million people who have the right to speak and the right to be heard.”
In an interview with TVNewser in November, Pelley told us anchoring both Evening News and reporting for 60 Minutes has taken a toll on his family. “But the synergy is tremendous,” he added. “That’s what gives me the fire in the belly to do this job, is being out in the field, talking to people, and hearing what they have to say about their lives all around the world. And so I can’t give that up.”
Pelley has been anchor of the Evening News since June 6, 2011. David Muir took over ABC’s World News Tonight in Sept. 2014. NBC’s Lester Holt was named Nightly News anchor in June 2015.