Josh Elliott is an American television journalist who most recently worked for CBS News. He has previously worked as the news anchor for ABC's Good Morning America, a sports anchor for NBC Sports and Today, and was a co-anchor for the live telecast of ESPN's morning edition of SportsCenter.
Early life and education
Elliott was born to Susan, who gave Elliott up for adoption.[2] He was adopted by Charles Elliott and Toni Jordan[3] and grew up in Los Angeles, California. When he was 13, his father came out as gay at the time of his parents' divorce. His father died when Elliott was 15.[4]
When ESPN began airing SportsCenter live every weekday morning on August 11, 2008, Elliott was paired as an anchor with Hannah Storm for the first three hours of the programming block beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.[10]
Good Morning America
In May 2011, Elliott joined the team at ABC's Good Morning America following the departure of previous news anchor Juju Chang.[11] He also started as a substitute anchor on the weekend edition of ABC World News, debuting on May 21, 2011. Joined by Lara Spencer, he also anchored Good Afternoon America, an afternoon spin-off broadcast from July 9 to September 7, 2012, as a temporary replacement for ABC's canceled talk show The Revolution.[12]
NBC
On March 30, 2014, it was announced by ABC News President Ben Sherwood that Elliott had signed a contract with NBC, and would depart ABC News and Good Morning America. Amy Robach was announced as his immediate replacement.[13] With NBC, Elliott made $4 million per year, but a six-month non-compete clause prohibited him from appearing on news-related programming, relegating him primarily to NBC Sports programming such as the 2014 Kentucky Derby—where he made his on-air debut.[14] Upon his hiring, it was believed that NBC was contemplating Elliott to serve as a future host of Today; in response, he told the press that he "[hoped] Matt Lauer is here when I step away from this gig 30 years down the road. I can tell you that the only discussions I have had, as they relate to news, [are] ways to supply sports content to them." Elliott would, eventually, serve as a sports correspondent for the program.[15]
In December 2015, it was reported that Elliott had left NBC.[15]
CBS
On March 1, 2016, CBS News announced that it had hired Elliott to serve as the lead anchor for its digital news service CBSN. Of the hiring, CBS News president David Rhodes explained that Elliott needed an "outlet", going on to say that "we're going to need from him as much as he can bring in these different areas of reporting and anchoring. It's another reason it's the perfect place for him because it's kind of unlimited. We have some really hard-working people at CBSN, but we don't have enough of them."[16]
On February 10, 2017, Elliott announced on-air that he would be leaving CBSN, but stated that "knowing how things work around here, I may see you again on Monday morning". Elliott had been told by an executive that CBS had desired to place him in a larger role as a field correspondent, under which he would have filed reports for CBS's television news programs. However, CBS executives were caught off-guard by the abrupt announcement, and were unaware of any plans for him to be promoted from CBSN.[17][18] On February 13, 2017, Elliott was fired.[19][20]
^"Class Notes"(PDF). Columbia Journalism Alumni. New York. Winter 2008–2009. Archived from the original(PDF) on January 14, 2014. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
