Ernie Anastos
Ernie Anastos (born July 12, 1943) is a former American news anchor. He anchored the news at 6 p.m. on WNYW in New York City. He was also the anchor of the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on Fox 5 News with Dari Alexander. In 2017, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio honored Anastos by designating every March 21 to be Ernie Anastos Day.

Anastos is a Hall of Fame Broadcaster and has won more than 30 Emmy awards and nominations, including "Best Newscast in New York" and the Edward R. Murrow Award for broadcast excellence. The New York Times recently described him as "the ubiquitous anchorman."

Career
After graduating from Northeastern University, Anastos worked as a newsman at 98.5/WROR in Boston, as Ernie Andrews. In 1976, Anastos moved to television, becoming an anchor at WPRI-TV in Providence. In June 1978, WABC-TV in New York hired Anastos and he became anchor of the 11:00 pm Eyewitness News broadcast in November, a position that opened when Larry Kane left the station after one year and returned to Philadelphia. He anchored that broadcast with Rose Ann Scamardella until 1983, when she was replaced by Kaity Tong. Anastos also added the anchor duties for the 5 p.m. newscast after WABC decided to relieve Storm Field, their chief meteorologist at the time, of his anchor duties and keep his focus strictly on weather forecasting.

Anastos was replaced by Tom Snyder after Snyder joined the station following the cancellation of his NBC talk show Tomorrow. WABC added a daily 4:30 p.m. broadcast around the same time titled Eyewitness Extra, which paired Anastos and Bill Beutel. This did not last long and in 1984, Snyder left WABC to relocate to Los Angeles. Anastos then reclaimed his positions as anchor of the early evening and late newscasts and the early newscast was cancelled. He continued to work with Tong on the 11 p.m. broadcast until departing the station, and beginning in 1986 worked with Roz Abrams on the 5 p.m. broadcast. In May 1989, news broke that Anastos was leaving WABC after eleven years. He was replaced initially on the 5 p.m. Eyewitness News telecast with John Marler, with Beutel succeeding him on the 11 p.m. news.

Anastos moved to rival station WCBS-TV in June 1989 as part of a shakeup of their news broadcast teams. Although he was brought in to replace Mike Schneider, who would eventually resurface at ABC News, Anastos would also be supplanting veteran WCBS lead anchor Jim Jensen at first; in addition to taking Schneider's role as anchor of the station's late news alongside Michele Marsh, Anastos was also replacing Jensen as the lead early evening anchor as well by helming the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts as well (although Jensen would eventually return to the anchor position, Anastos became the overall lead shortly after his arrival).

Anastos left WCBS in mid-1994 to join NewsTalk Television, a fledgeling cable operation owned by Multimedia Communications. Shortly thereafter he began hosting a gardening show on Lifetime, called Our Home.

In 1997, Anastos returned to the anchor desk and was hired by WWOR-TV to replace Sean Mooney as co-anchor of its 10:00 pm newscast. Four years later he was back at WCBS, brought in to replace Stephen Clark as the lead anchor. He left for second time in 2005, after signing a five-year, $10 million contract with WNYW-TV.  At Fox 5, he was partnered with Rosanna Scotto, from 2005 to 2009 for the news at 5 and 10p.m. until Scotto was moved to Co-host Good Day New York with Greg Kelly. It was announced that  Dari Alexander would anchor with Anastos on the 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts. On July 2, 2012, he was moved off the 10 p.m. newscast and replaced by Good Day New York cohost Greg Kelly, who has since moved back to his prior role and been replaced by Steve Lacy. In June 2014, Ernie became the Anchor of the 6pm newscast, leaving the 5pm newscast with Dari Alexander, having Steve Lacy fill the position.

Anastos has anchored coverage of the World Trade Center attacks.  He also traveled to Cuba and met with Fidel Castro reporting on the 45th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. He covered Cardinal John Joseph O'Connor's official trip to El Salvador and Nicaragua, and reported on the death and funeral of Princess Diana from London. Anastos also was nominated for an Emmy for his reporting on the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr. from the site of his plane crash near Cape Cod.

Anastos has worked as a news anchor and reporter for CBS This Morning, CBS Late News, and substitute host for ABC's Good Morning America.

Anastos has become well known for a pair of gaffes on live television. In 2007, he directed viewers to visit "myfoxny don cock" instead of "myfoxny dot com", which is the website for WNYW. Then in 2009, following meteorologist Nick Gregory's weather forecast one evening where he made a joke playing off an old Perdue Farms advertising campaign, Anastos said, live on the air, "It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast, Nick. Keep fucking that chicken."

Anastos appeared in season eight, episode 10 of the television show 24. In 2014, he joined the board of trustees at New York Institute of Technology.

In June 2020, Anastos departed Fox 5 to attend Harvard Business School.

Writing

Anastos authored a book on the lifestyles of youth in America. His book, Twixt: Teens Yesterday and Today, traces American teenagers' influence on social and political attitudes.

He has also been a regular columnist for Family Circle.

Awards

He has won 28 Emmy Awards and nominations, and was nominated for the Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing.

He has been profiled in the International Who's Who of Intellectuals. A Phi Kappa Phi honoree, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern University in Boston, where he is a member of the university board. He has additional graduate studies at Columbia University and holds an honorary doctorate degree. In May 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Manhattanville College.

On March 21, 2017, Ernie was honored by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, to have March 21 named Ernie Anastos Day in New York City.

Radio ownership

A Saratoga Springs, New York-based radio station WJKE. The partnership, known as the Anastos Media Group, soon bought several other stations in the Capital District of New York State and later entered the eastern New England media market. The daily operations of the group were handled in part by Anastos' daughter Nina (b. 1970). Effective September 7, 2012, the stations—WABY, WQAR, WUAM and its translator W291BY, and WVKZ—were sold to Empire Broadcasting Corporation for $1.2 million.

See also
 New Yorkers in journalism

References

External links 
 

Ernie Anastos on MyFoxNY

1943 births
Living people
American reporters and correspondents
American television journalists
Television anchors from New York City
New York (state) television reporters
Northeastern University alumni
New York Institute of Technology faculty
People from Armonk, New York
American male journalists
People from Nashua, New Hampshire