Monday, August 13, 2012

Second look: Sue Simmons


Here at Second Lives Club, we hate firings of all kinds but we really hate public firings.  It’s bad enough to lose a job you love or a job you need—not to mention, a job you are really good at-- but it seems worse when it happens publicly. My mother read in the New York Times that I had been fired from my editor-in-chief job at Real Simple. I myself found out from the New York Post when a media gossip columnist from the New York Post called for my comment. (I declined. Call me now, Keith Kelly, I've had some second thoughts.) That’s why I felt so bad when I read last June that Sue Simmons, the co-anchor at New York’s local NBC news station, had been kicked from her chair after 32 years. Now, however, I'm happy to report there are signs of A Second Life. But first let me fill you in on her first life.


First Life: Sue Simmons, 69, was born in Harlem, the daughter of John, a jazz bassist, and Dorothy, a socialite from Chicago. Her first job as a news anchor began in Washington, D.C. in l976. Until then, there had been no African American anchor teams.  In 1980, she joined Chuck Scarborough (think strawberry-blonde boy next door looks ) where she remained until this summer. “Chuck and Sue", no last names necessary for the show, had the longest tenure for any news duo in the fickle world of television.


Sue is many things including an excellent broadcast journalism.  She and Chuck may have paved the way for ‘personality’ journalism but she was nobody’s fool--or tool, for that matter. She was feisty, and some would  even say dangerous (Al Roker in his tribute said it was like sitting next to an alligator, you never knew when she would snap.  She once dropped the “F” bomb when she thought she was off-air).  She was fun (every February she did her impersonation of a groundhog.) And, she was wickedly funny. (Once after a news --yes news!--story about a baby whale that had washed ashore, her co-anchor questioned her sympathy for the endangered calf.  She replied without missing a beat: “If he gets well, I’ll kiss his little blowhole.) In short, she was no plastic news reader.


So why was her multi-million dollar contract not renewed?
Too expensive? (Does anyone pay for experience anymore?)
Too old? (Chuck’s still working but then again he won’t be 69 until November.) Too real?  (Shouldn’t TV viewers see themselves—their age, their race, whatever--when they turn on the set, especially when the reporters are delivering the news). I don’t have the answers but I can tell you that Sue is moving to a wider audience this fall, a national stage, if you will.

Second Life:  In the two-part premier episode of Law & Order SUV (and be honest who doesn't watch it, especially the middle-of-the-night reruns), Sue Simmons will play a newscaster helping the police team solve the murder of a prostitute found in the captain’s bed.  (No comment.) Says L&O executive producer Warren Light: “She was terrific. It wasn’t like she needed extra takes (Duh.) She also had couple of smart corrections in the script as to how she would say something. (Really?)" For the record, she took out the word burgeoning. Sue knew nobody says it, it is only used in writing.  So here’s to a burgeoning second life, Sue Simmons.

13 comments:

  1. I can't believe this~ she is so smart and witty and she and Chuck had great chemistry and she was a welcome breath of fresh air.

    I can't imagine how they can replace her.

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    1. No one can replace Sue Simmons but here's who currently occupying her seat, according to the NY Daily
      News--and maybe an answer to why Simmons was replaced:

      SHIBA RUSSELL, who said when she came to WNBC/Ch. 4 last year that she was not hired to replace Sue Simmons, Monday night officially did.

      The move, widely predicted from the time WNBC hired Russell in February 2011, enables the station to go younger and more economical with one of its major newscasts.

      It replaces the 69-year-old Simmons, whose departure was not voluntary, with a woman closer to half her age — and who reminds some viewers of a younger Simmons.

      Delete
  2. Age discrimination is my guess.
    I'm glad she has a new gig, I always liked her realness.

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    1. Yes, many have speculated that age played a part in the failure to renew Simmons' comment. Her replacement is half her age and decidedly less real. (Or, maybe half his real. Being wholly yourself takes time.)
      I'm afraid in today's culture, realness can't trump age.

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  3. I could be wrong but I don't believe she was let go - I saw her being interviewed (now this could be just her "story") but she said this was her decision and they threw her all kinds of parties before she left. She was an institution - I loved watching her dry wit and banter with Chuck Scarborough make even the toughest newscast interesting. More power to you Sue Simmons! Enjoy and revel in your second life (or third!).

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    1. Yes, lots of parties and tributes but she was definitely let go. She said she cried for two weeks before her
      exit date and kept thinking this was all a big mistake.

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  4. She didn't want to leave, and it wasn't time. NBC/WNBC is making a mess of things in search of ratings. Look what the parent company did to Anne Curry. I don't watch WNBC anymore, and rarely watch NBC. sue was unique, that was her downfall.

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    1. I only watch MSNBC these days--Mika and Maddow and the other lively crew. Personality journalism has
      consumed newscasts and the casting of news anchors. Ann Curry was a casualty of low Q ratings and
      poor chemistry with her co-hosts.

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  5. I am extremely happy to see Sue Simmons back on television again in any capacity -- we saw her at the Apollo theater last week during Harlem Week (actually, Harlem Week lasts for a month, and not all of the festivities take place in Harlem, but I digress). She looks great, and not old, beaten up, and dried up and tired like her old partner Chuck Scarborough does. However, there is one glaring error in the reports about Law and Order: SVU being her first acting experience. Sue played herself in a 1999 film called Light It Up, starring Usher Raymond, Vanessa Williams, and Forest Whittaker among others. I could be wrong, but I believe that Sue has also played herself in a few other films, among them The First Wives Club. For the record, I have been actively boycotting NBC news, both local and national (my apologies to Brian Williams), for the way in which Ann Curry and Sue Simmons have been treated. First Chuck finally figured out after 32 years that viewers were not watching him in the "driver's seat," but were watching Sue in the passenger seat all along. Then even after Sue was made to change her seat in order to soothe old Chuck's ego, fans were still looking at her, and not that dried up looking, lifeless Chuck. The final insult before not renewing Ms. Simmons' contract, was to change the desk that Chuck and Sue were working from to an "S" curve, moving Sue to the "driver's seat," pushing Chuck to the front, and Sue so far back that she looked like a visitor to the set, and the irony is that everyone still looked at her. Now no one is watching Chuck or Sue, and definitely not watching Shiba, who I stopped watching when she took over Sue's Live at Five. I have been getting my local news from Sue Simmons for most of my life, I trust her, and I miss her. Bring Sue back to television news. (Note to ChucK: you are not now, nor will you ever be Edward R. Murrow.\

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    1. Thanks for letting us know Sue Simmon's acting resume. And, I applaud your showing your outrage by
      switching the channel. What NBC did to Ann Curry was outrageous. News is all about personalities now.
      Character takes a back seat. And reporting skills? They rank somewhere below twitter following.

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  6. Caryl: Is it me, or have the New York local news ratings, specifically those of News4New York, been noticeably missing since the end of June 2012? Obviously the ratings cannot be hidden, but no one seems to be crowing about them either, and we know what happened to The Today Show's ratings. How do you lose nearly 700,000 viewer in one day? Is that what is meant by vox populi?

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  7. Ridiculous quest there. What occurred after? Take care! http://www.exoticcarrental305.com

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  8. A Third Act? I would pay good money to see Sue Simmons and Jack Cafferty teamed together again. Perhaps they could help to breathe some life into HNN.

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