Ch. 2 anchors away
Station ousting Tyler from longtime newscast role
Dana Tyler, a mainstay presence on WCBS-TV evening newscasts for decades, will leave her daily anchoring duties later this month, according to a report.
Tyler, the Emmy Awardwinning journalist who coanchors the 6 p.m. news broadcast on New York City’s Channel 2 alongside Dick Brennan, will give up her chair.
Tyler, who has been with Channel 2 for 34 years, has anchored the station’s 5 p.m., 6 p.m. or 11 p.m. newscasts since 1993.
Brennan, who has been with the station since 2012, will also be replaced during the 6 p.m. time slot.
Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson, who co-anchor the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, will expand their time slot through 6:30 p.m.
Tyler, the longest tenured anchor in the history of the CBS affiliate, will contribute stories and interviews on the channel’s over-theair broadcast as well as its streaming platform, according to an internal memo circulated by the station.
News of the memo was first reported by Newsday.
Tyler and the station didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Tyler, 65, joined WCBS-TV in 1990 as a weekend anchor after relocating from her hometown of Columbus, Ohio, where she worked as a reporter and anchor for local station WBNS/10.
She is the great-granddaughter of Ralph Waldo Tyler, the first black man to have been accredited as a news correspondent during
World War I and who later went on to become assistant postmaster general of the US — the highest-ranking black official in the federal government at the time.
On Feb. 26, 1993, Dana Tyler was on the air for five straight hours, anchoring the station’s coverage of the basement bombing of the World Trade Center.
Channel 2 was the only local station to have its news anchors cover the attack because its competitors — the NBC and ABC affiliates — couldn’t broadcast because their transmitters, which were on the North Tower of the World Trade Center, were knocked down.
WCBS-TV’s transmitter was atop the Empire State Building.
In 2016, Tyler went on a months-long hiatus following her publicized breakup with former Genesis rocker Phil Collins.
Dana Tyler, who was romantically linked to rock star Phil Collins (inset) for 10 years until their breakup in 2016, is being replaced as anchor on WCBS/ Channel 2’s 6 p.m. newscast, but will still work for the station.