The End of an Era: Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons are breaking up

Photo via nydailynews.com

Growing up in New York, there was only one place on television to turn to for the news: NBC’s News 4 New York at 11, with Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons. Long before the snark of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and before 24-7 cable news channels became popular, the 11 p.m. news broadcast was the place where it all went down. And with Chuck and Sue at the helm, we were in good hands. This was old-school news, here. Just two, knowledgeable anchors, neutral of any personal opinion, delivering the facts, with a bit of friendly banter in-between. 

Now, after 32 years of working together, Chuck and Sue are splitting up -- because Sue Simmons has been canned. According to Cindy Adams via the NY Post, NBC has decided not to renew her contract. Come June, Simmons is out. The longest-running anchor team in New York television is history, kaput.

What made Chuck and Sue so great together was that you could tell that they actually respected one another. You know how sometimes you see two people co-hosting a news or entertainment program, and you can tell that one of them really hates the other? Think Ryan Secreast and Brian Dunkleman on season 1 of American Idol. Chuck and Sue were never like that. They were never at odds (though I'm sure it helps that we never really had to see either of them participate in any awkward cooking segments or man-on-the-street bit). They were classy. Professional. A real team you could trust.

Rumor has it that they’re a team off-camera, too. Scarborough has reportedly tried to get NBC to reconsider, but they’re not listening. Then again, these are the same people who put Community on hiatus and kept Heroes on the air for four seasons. NBC isn’t exactly filled with the smartest of the bunch.

But why was Sue Simmons really canned? There’s a lot of speculation – most of which comes from Adams herself. As she pointed out, Sue and Chuck are both 68 years-old. He’s been given three more years, she’s been let go. She’s the highest paid anchorwoman at any local station in the country though, surely, Scarborough still makes more than her. On paper, this seems a little sexist, no? Or maybe it could have been Simmons’s legendary 2008 incident in which, during a live teaser for the 11 p.m. program, she was overheard angrily asking a coworker “What the fuck are you doing!?” She immediately apologized, of course, but the video went viral, and may have tarnished her reputation. And when she returned to work after back surgery in January 2011, she was notably absent from the co-anchors 6 p.m. newscast.

Then again, Chuck and Sue still worked together at 11. And Simmons has four Emmys. Surely that has to make a difference? I guess not.

There have been many great duos in television. Ross and Rachel. Will and Grace. Stabler and Benson. But none of them were really as perfect as Chuck and Sue. When you grow up watching two people give you the news five nights a week for the majority of your life, you kind of develop and attachment. I will miss Sue Simmons greatly. I’ll miss her reporting style. I’ll miss her ability to not take herself too seriously. I’ll miss her yearly groundhog impression. Who knows – she might get picked up by another network. But the dream team as I know them will be no more.

Am I the only one out there feeling sad about this? Or is it just a native New Yorker thing?