SOBBING SUE
Simmons tells of tears after getting WNBC boot
SALTY SUE CRIED right up until they pulled the plug.
In her first public appearance since leaving WNBC’s famous anchor team of “Chuck and Sue,” legendary newswoman Sue Simmons recalled what she felt as her final day on air approached in June.
“Every time somebody would come up to me and say, ‘ We’re gonna miss you . . . Waaaa,” Simmons told Joy Behar on her Current TV show, “Say Anything.”
“But I was ready to go, you get yourself geared up,” the anchorwoman said.
“Mama always said, ‘Never stay too long at the party, so if you get an inkling, get out of the party.’ ”
Simmons, 70, anchored WNBC’s nightly local news for 32 years before she was told in January that the NBC-owned flagship station was not going to renew her big-bucks contract when it expired six months later.
At the time, sources at the sta- tion said management had become annoyed with her because she refused to participate in promotional activities and was irritated at how loose she was when on TV.
The anchor had become so casual delivering her lines, she famously dropped an F-bomb during a live 2008 telecast.
She apologized on-air a halfhour later.
She also was famous for drinking between telecasts, former coworkers said.
“It wasn’t so all of a sudden. I had an inkling,” Simmons told Behar. “But somewhere along the line, there were mixed signals, and I didn’t think it was going to end, and it did.”
Behar also wondered why station brass tossed Simmons but kept her co-anchor, Chuck Scarborough.
“They never explained that to me, but I think it’s because they viewed him as being more engaged than I was,” Simmons said.
Scarborough is famous for his frequent appearances at charity events and corporate functions — opportunities Simmons consistently passed on. Her former co-anchor is also known for prepping extensively each night, while Simmons always seemed to wing it.
Her exit had been in the works for years, sources said, and several previous station managers had tried in vain to persuade her to take a buyout, most recently in 2008, but she declined.
Station sources have insisted that Simmons’ huge paycheck was a big part of the reason she was cut loose, but Simmons denied that she was paid $5 million a year for her anchor duties, as high-ranking WNBC executives said.
“Local anchors don’t get paid that much,” she said.
Behar quipped, “Not everybody makes Katie Couric’s salary.”
Simmons also talked about her replacement, Shiba Russell, who is 33 years younger.
“She’s an old 37,” Sue said. “I just wished her well and moved on.”
“Does she realize that she’s only got three more years until they tell her to go?” Behar joked.