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Connie Chung

Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S. representative Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance,[1] and basketball legend Magic Johnson after he went public about being HIV-positive. In 1993, she became the second woman to co-anchor a network newscast as part of CBS Evening News.

Connie Chung

Constance Yu-Hwa Chung

(1946-08-20) August 20, 1946

television news anchor, reporter, journalist

1972–present

(m. 1984)

1

宗毓華

Zōng Yùhuá

Zōng Yùhuá

Career[edit]

Early career[edit]

Chung was a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in the early 1970s during the Watergate political scandal. Chung left to anchor evening newscasts for KNXT, a CBS owned and operated station in Los Angeles (now KCBS-TV). Her co-anchors at KNXT included Joe Benti, Brent Musburger and Jess Marlow.[7] The Los Angeles Times TV columnist said Chung "helped give Channel 2 an agreeable, respectable, middle-road identity".[8] Chung also anchored CBS's primetime news updates (CBS Newsbreak) for West Coast stations from the KNXT studios at Columbia Square during her tenure there.


In early 2018, Chung was asked if she was sexually harassed in her career. She replied, "Oh, yeah! Oh, sure. Yeah. Every day. I mean, a lot. Especially when I started out".[9] Later that year, following Christine Blasey Ford's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee of being sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, Chung wrote an open letter to Blasey-Ford saying that she too was sexually assaulted when she was in college by the doctor who delivered her.[10]

NBC[edit]

In 1983, Chung returned to network news as anchor of NBC's new early program, NBC News at Sunrise, which was scheduled as the lead-in to the Today program. She was also anchor of the Saturday edition of NBC Nightly News and filled in for Tom Brokaw on weeknights. NBC also created two newsmagazines, American Almanac and 1986, which she co-hosted with Roger Mudd.

CBS[edit]

In 1989, Chung returned to CBS to host Saturday Night with Connie Chung (later renamed Face to Face with Connie Chung) (1989–90) and anchor CBS Sunday Evening News (1989–1993). The former show was also planned to move to Mondays, but Chung's increasing health commitments and pregnancy led to the show being replaced by The Trials of Rosie O'Neill.[11] On June 1, 1993, she became the second woman (after Barbara Walters with ABC in 1976) to co-anchor a major network's national weekday news broadcast.[12][a] While hosting the CBS Evening News, Chung also hosted a side project on CBS, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung. After her co-anchoring duties with Dan Rather ended in 1995, Chung left CBS. She eventually jumped to ABC News, where she co-hosted the Monday edition of 20/20 with Charles Gibson and began independent interviews.

Interview style[edit]

Chung's interviews were largely gentle, but often they were punctuated by a rapid-fire barrage of sharp questions. Despite this, her interviews were still widely recognized as being softer than those of other interviewers, such as Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace. Consequently, her interviews were often used as a public relations move by those looking to overcome scandal or controversy. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S. representative Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance.[1]

Teaching[edit]

Chung accepted a teaching fellowship at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[23] While at Harvard, she wrote a discussion paper titled The Business of Getting "The Get": Nailing an Exclusive Interview in Prime Time.[24][25]

Personal life[edit]

Chung has been married to talk show host Maury Povich since 1984. They have one son, Matthew Jay Povich, whom they adopted on June 20, 1995.[26] She converted to Judaism upon her marriage to Maury.[27]

Impact[edit]

In her early career, Chung was only the second woman and the first Asian to anchor a major nightly news program in the U.S. As such, for the growing number of new Chinese immigrants to the U.S. from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, she was a rare, nationally visible representative. Many of these immigrant families, wanting their daughters to achieve and succeed, named their girls Connie after the one woman on mainstream media who could be seen as a role model for them.[4]

1976–1983: Evening news co-anchor at CBS-owned KNXT in Los Angeles

[28]

1983–1986: anchor[29]

NBC News at Sunrise

1983–1989: Saturday anchor

NBC Nightly News

1989–1990: Saturday Night with Connie Chung/Face to Face with Connie Chung anchor

[29]

1989–1993: anchor

CBS Sunday Evening News

1993–1995: co-anchor (with Dan Rather)[29]

CBS Evening News

1993–1995: anchor[29]

Eye to Eye with Connie Chung

1998–2000: anchor[29]

20/20

1999–2000: correspondent[29]

ABC 2000 Today

2002–2003: anchor[29]

Connie Chung Tonight

2006: anchor[29]

Weekends with Maury and Connie

Chinese Americans in New York City

New Yorkers in journalism

at IMDb

Connie Chung

Archived November 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine

Maury Povich and Connie Chung Discuss Work and Family on Larry King Live

Lifetime's Intimate Portrait: Connie Chung

Mates: Maury and Connie – New York Magazine

"Countdown with Keith Olbermann" for June 22, 2006: Interview with Connie Chung after her farewell song

Connie Chung, The Business of Getting "The Get": Nailing an Exclusive Interview in Prime Time April, 1998. D-28.

Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America

Connie Chung