Linda Ellerbee (born Linda Jane Smith; August 15, 1944) is an American
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
, anchor, producer, reporter, author, speaker and commentator, noted as longtime
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
correspondent for
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
and host of
NBC News Overnight. She is widely known as the twenty-five year host of ''
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee,''
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
's highly rated and recognized news program for older school-aged children and teens that addressed substantive issues, including wars, disease and disasters, without condescension.
Ellerbee's work on ''
NBC News Overnight'' was recognized by the jurors of the
duPont Columbia Awards as "possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever."
[''Encyclopedia of Television,'' 2nd Ed. 2004, ]Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is an American museum, the stated mission of which is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain through our archi ...
, by Fitzroy Dearborn, Horace Newcomb
Horace Newcomb held the Lambdin Kay Chair for the Peabody Award in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia from 2001 through June 2013. Prior to this, he was a member of the Board of Jurors from 1989 to ...
(ed.), CRC Press, Boca Raton Described as literate, smart, unapologetic, assertive and keenly observant, Ellerbee formally retired in 2015, after 43 years in journalism.
Biography
Early life
Ellerbee was born Linda Jane Smith in
Bryan, Texas
Bryan is a city and the county seat of Brazos County, Texas, United States. It is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley ( East and Central Texas). As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 83,980. Bryan borders the city of Colleg ...
. She attended
River Oaks Elementary School,
Lanier Middle School, and
Lamar High School in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
.
[Distinguished HISD Alumni]
". Houston Independent School District
The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is the largest public school system in Texas, and the eighth-largest in the United States. Houston ISD serves as a community school district for most of the city of Houston and several nearby and ...
.
She also attended
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
in
Nashville,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, dropping out in 1964.
Ellerbee traveled around the country for some time afterward, working itinerant jobs in radio. Ellerbee wrote:
After a stint working for
Terry Miller,
majority leader
In U.S. politics (as well as in some other countries utilizing the presidential system), the majority floor leader is a partisan position in a legislative body. of the
Alaska Senate, she was hired by the Dallas bureau of the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
to write copy. She claims to have been fired after writing a catty personal letter on the AP's
word processor
A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features.
Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current ...
s and accidentally sending the letter out on the wire. The letter brought her to the attention of Houston
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
television affiliate
KHOU-TV
KHOU (channel 11) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Conroe-licensed Quest station KTBU (channel 55). Both stations share studios on Westheimer Road near Upto ...
, which hired her to replace
Jessica Savitch
Jessica Beth Savitch (February 1, 1947 – October 23, 1983) was an American television journalist, best known for being the weekend anchor of ''NBC Nightly News'' and daily newsreader for NBC News during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Savi ...
in January 1973.
Within several months, she was hired by New York's
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station W ...
.
Career
At NBC, Ellerbee worked as a reporter on ''
Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
''. Her first
anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄ� ...
job was on the prime-time version of ''
Weekend''. Ellerbee joined
Lloyd Dobyns as co-host of ''Weekend'' when the show moved from its late-night time slot (where it rotated with ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
'', generally one Saturday night per month) into direct
prime time competition with
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
's ''
60 Minutes''. As with the late-night incarnation, they would sign-off with the phrase, "And so it goes."
In 1982, Ellerbee was again teamed with Dobyns (and later Bill Schechner) as hosts of ''
NBC News Overnight'', where their trademark writing style made the show somewhat reminiscent of their stint on ''Weekend''. They ended each broadcast with a short, usually wry, commentary, again signing off with the catch-phrase, "And so it goes," which later became the title of her first memoir. While at NBC, Ellerbee worked with
Jessica Savitch
Jessica Beth Savitch (February 1, 1947 – October 23, 1983) was an American television journalist, best known for being the weekend anchor of ''NBC Nightly News'' and daily newsreader for NBC News during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Savi ...
; when Savitch's drug problems became apparent Ellerbee tried to organize an intervention, but Savitch died before that happened.
In 1984, after the cancellation of ''Overnight'', Ellerbee moved to ''Summer Sunday USA'', as co-anchor with
Andrea Mitchell
Andrea Mitchell (born October 30, 1946) is an American television journalist, anchor and commentator for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C.
She is NBC News' chief foreign affairs & chief Washington correspondent, reporting on the 2008 presi ...
, the first time a prime-time network news program was co-anchored by two women. She was then was a correspondent for ''Today'' before moving to rival network
ABC in 1986. There she served as a reporter for the morning program ''
Good Morning America''. At ABC, Ellerbee was able to co-write and co-anchor (with Ray Gandolf) ''
Our World'', a weekly primetime historical series. She won an Emmy Award for her work on that program.
In 1987, Ellerbee and her husband and business partner Rolfe Tessem left network news to start their own production company, Lucky Duck Productions. The company has produced programs for every major cable network, and has as its flagship program ''
Nick News'', a news program for children on
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
. That show has received many awards: three
Peabody Awards (including one personal Peabody given to Ellerbee for her coverage of the Clinton investigation
[58th Annual Peabody Awards](_blank)
May 1999.), another duPont Columbia Award and three
Emmys
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
. In 2004, Ellerbee was honored with an Emmy for her WE: Women's Entertainment network series ''When I Was a Girl''.
In 1989, she guest-starred as herself in an episode of the sitcom ''
Murphy Brown''. The episode "Summer of '77" referenced that Ellerbee had auditioned for the anchor job which eventually went to the title character, played by
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress. She won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of the title character on the CBS sitcom ''Murphy Brown'' (1988–1998, 2018). She is also kno ...
. In the episode, Murphy Brown also accuses Ellerbee of stealing the catchphrase "And so it goes ..." from her during a long-haul flight. The two reminisce, with Ellerbee saying she might like to go back to an old network job, and Brown wanting to take some time off to write a book. Both reply with "Nahh ...".
Also in 1989, Ellerbee created a minor uproar by appearing in television commercials for
Maxwell House
Maxwell House is an American brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Heinz in North America and JDE Peet's in the rest of the world. Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the ...
coffee. The New York Times said the commercials were poorly done even as advertisements, but also betrayed her trademark "uncompromising intellectual honesty" and "sardonic wit" — and were mercenary, "devaluing both broadcast news and broadcast advertising."
Because of the format of the commercials, set with a mock anchor's background,
Advertising Age
''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in m ...
said "this is advertising news disguised as NBC news." Ellerbee would later share that journalist
Jimmy Breslin
James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...
called to supportively remind her that when he made a beer commercial, they let him keep his
Pulitzer Prize.
Her autobiography, ''And So It Goes'', was published in 1986. A second book of memoirs, ''Move On: Adventures in the Real World'', was published in 1991 and a third, ''Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table'', in 2005. In addition, she has authored an eight-part series of ''Girl Reporter'' books for young people, as well as a syndicated newspaper column.
In 1992, Ellerbee was diagnosed with
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...
and had a double
mastectomy
Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. A mastectomy is usually carried out to treat breast cancer. In some cases, women believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operat ...
. Since then, she has spent much of her time speaking to groups about how she fought the cancer and how women need to fight the disease, demand better medical treatment, and maintain a healthy sense of humor.
Employment
National television and film
* Reporter, the Washington bureau of
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
, 1976–1978
* Co-anchor, network news magazine ''
Weekend '', 1978–1979
* Correspondent, ''
NBC Nightly News
''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...
'', 1979–1982
* Co-anchor, ''
NBC News Overnight'', 1982–1984
* Co-anchor, ''Summer Sunday USA'', 1984
* Reporter, ''
Today'', 1984–1986
* Reporter, ''
Good Morning America'', 1986
* Anchor, ''
Our World'', 1986–1987
*Narrator,
Baby Boom, 1987
* President, Lucky Duck Productions, since 1987
* Commentator,
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, 1989
* Producer, writer, and host, ''
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee'' 1992–2015
Radio, local television, print, and online
* Disc jockey at
WSDM Chicago 1965–1968
* Program director,
KSJO
KSJO (92.3 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to San Jose, California, and broadcasts to the San Francisco Bay Area. KSJO airs a Bollywood music radio format branded as Bolly 92.3. It is owned by Silicon Valley Asian Media Group ...
San Francisco, 1967–1968
* Reporter,
KJNO Juneau, Alaska, 1969–1972
* News writer, Associated Press in Dallas, Texas, 1972
* Television reporter,
KHOU
KHOU (channel 11) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Conroe-licensed Quest station KTBU (channel 55). Both stations share studios on Westheimer Road near Uptow ...
in Houston, 1972–1973
* General assignment reporter,
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station W ...
in New York City, 1973–1976
* Writer, host, ''On the Record''
* On-line production with
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
, since 1996
* Panelist, ''The Roundtable'',
WAMC
WAMC is a public radio network headquartered in Albany, New York. The network has 12 broadcast radio stations (transmitters) and 16 broadcast relay stations (translators, repeaters). The two flagship stations in the WAMC network are WAMC-FM 90. ...
, 2020–
Bibliography
Non-fiction
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Fiction
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Accolades
*1992 NOW NYC's Women of Power & Influence Award
*1998 Personal
Peabody Award
* 2011:
Paul White Award,
Radio Television Digital News Association
References
External links
Linda Ellerbee biographyon the
Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is an American museum, the stated mission of which is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain through our archi ...
website
*
*
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*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellerbee, Linda
1944 births
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American journalists
American children's writers
American memoirists
American television news anchors
American women memoirists
American women television journalists
Journalists from Texas
Lamar High School (Houston, Texas) alumni
Living people
ABC News personalities
NBC News people
Peabody Award winners
People from Bryan, Texas
Vanderbilt University alumni
20th-century American women
21st-century American women