Ex-CBS ‘Sunday Morning’ anchor Osgood dies at 91
Charles Osgood, the longtime anchor of “CBS Sunday Morning,” has died following a battle with dementia, the network reports.
CBS News said the journalist, known for his signature bow ties and folksy reports about average Americans, died Tuesday at his New Jersey home, according to his family. He was 91.
“CBS Sunday Morning” will pay tribute to the former anchor on Sunday.
Osgood, born in the Bronx, retired in 2016 after 45 years at CBS News, where he hosted “CBS Sunday Morning” from 1994 until his sign-off. He had replaced Charles Kuralt.
“For years now, people — even friends and family — have been asking me why I continue doing this, considering my age,” Osgood said when he retired, according to The Associated Press. “It’s just that it’s been such a joy doing it! … It’s been a great run, but after nearly 50 years at CBS … the time has come.”
Osgood seemingly had an impossible act to follow. But with his folksy erudition and his slightly bookish, quirky style, he immediately clicked with viewers who continued to embrace the program as an unhurried TV magazine that, as before, seemed defined only by its host’s, and staff’s, curiosity.
Even then, Osgood was already a CBS veteran. While studying economics at Fordham College at Rose Hill, he discovered a love for radio at the school’s station WFUV. After graduating, Osgood joined the Army and became announcer of the service’s band. He served until the late 1950s.
In 1967, he took a job as reporter on the CBS-owned New York news radio station. Then, one fateful weekend, he was summoned to fill in at the anchor desk for the TV network’s Saturday newscast. In 1971, he joined the CBS TV network.
Osgood’s influence extended across various facets of CBS News, where he contributed to programs such as “CBS Morning News,” “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather,” and the “CBS Sunday Night News.” However, one of his most enduring legacies is “The Osgood File,” a radio commentary that he wrote and hosted for almost 46 years. A testament to his versatility, the broadcasts were aired up to four times a day, five days a week. His sign-off, “I’ll see you on the radio,” became a familiar phrase for listeners nationwide and seamlessly transitioned into his role as the host of “CBS Sunday Morning.”
Osgood proved to be a broadcaster who could write essays and light verse as well as report hard news and a reporter and anchor who continued to work in both radio and television with equal facility. (He once described himself as “a radio guy who finally stopped being terrified of the camera.”)
Throughout his career, Osgood received numerous awards including the Walter Cronkite Excellence in Journalism Award from Arizona State University, the George Foster Peabody Award, the National Association of Broadcasters Distinguished Service Award and four Emmy Awards. In 2017, he was honored with a fifth lifetime achievement award.
The list of recognitions continued with the 1999 International Radio and Television Society Foundation (IRTS) Award for significant achievement, the 2005 Paul White Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, and inductions into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2000. “The Osgood File” itself garnered five esteemed Washington Journalism Review “Best in the Business” Awards.
Following Osgood’s death, Jane Pauley, the current host of “Sunday Morning,” praised her predecessor. “Watching him at work was a masterclass in communicating. I’ll still think to myself, ‘How would Charlie say it?,’ trying to capture the elusive warmth and intelligence of his voice and delivery,” she told CBS News. “I expect I’ll go on trying.”
At the News & Documentary Emmy Awards in 2016, Pauley complimented Osgood’s delivery of “each word with the playful precision of the broadcast stylist that he is. I really can’t think of anyone else remotely like him on the air. Every phrase is like music, unless of course, it’s like poetry.”
Osgood was married to Jean Osgood from 1973 until his death. They share five children.