Ernie Anastos (July 12, 1943 – March 12, 2026) was an American Emmy award-winning television news anchor and talk show host on WABC (770 AM) with Positively Ernie focusing on uplifting stories and interviews. He was also a children’s author and host of his own nationally syndicated TV show, Positively America. He most visibly anchored the evening news at four flagship network stations in New York: UPN 9 (now My9), ABC 7, CBS 2, and FOX 5. In 2017, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio honored Anastos by designating every March 21 to be Ernie Anastos Day.

Anastos covered stories including the September 11 attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic. He reported on Cuba under Fidel Castro in 2004 and interviewed US presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and South African bishop Desmond Tutu. He had broadcast ownership of AM and FM radio stations in New York State and New England. He launched an Internet youth channel and also published newspapers and magazines. He performed on-camera roles as himself in Hollywood motion pictures such as Independence Day, Summer of Sam, Run All Night, and The Yards.

He was a Hall of Fame Broadcaster and received more than 30 Emmy awards and nominations, including "Best Newscast in New York" and the Edward R. Murrow Award for broadcast excellence. The New York Times described him as "the ubiquitous anchorman". Anastos also was an author of career and educational books for young readers, and was furthermore distinguished for being the United States' first Greek-American news anchorman.

Career

Anastos was a television news anchor at WABC-TV, WCBS-TV and WNYW-TV in New York throughout his career. In 1976, Anastos moved to television, becoming an anchor at WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island. In June 1978, WABC-TV in New York hired Anastos and he became anchor of the 11 p.m. Eyewitness News broadcast in November. He anchored the 11 p.m. broadcast until 1982. Anastos also added the anchor duties for the 5 p.m. newscast on WABC-TV.

In 1982 he was replaced on the 5:00 and 11:00 pm newscasts by Tom Snyder, who joined WABC following the cancellation of his NBC late-night program. Anastos returned to anchoring in the late afternoon the following year, with Bill Beutel joining him to anchor a 4:30 pm newscast that failed to find an audience and was cancelled in early 1984; Snyder left WABC shortly thereafter to return to Los Angeles, and Anastos replaced him in his former anchor positions. Anastos again became the anchor of the early evening and late newscasts on WABC-TV, and would hold these positions for another five years.

In May 1989, Anastos announced that he was leaving WABC after eleven years. The next month, he took over as WCBS-TV’s lead anchor and also the 11 p.m. anchor role.

From 1995 to 2000, Anastos became involved in radio and TV broadcast ownership while also anchoring and hosting various assignments including, WWOR-TV and Lifetime's Our Home program. At that time, Anastos took over the 6p.m. news anchor role on WNYW-TV in 2012 with a newly revamped format to include more live interview segments and positive news stories.

Radio ownership

Anastos was the proprietor of the Saratoga Springs, New York-based radio station WJKE. The partnership, known as the Anastos Media Group, soon bought several other stations in the Capital District of New York State and later entered the eastern New England media market.

On-air mishap

On September 15, 2009, Anastos was working for WNYW Fox News, anchoring the evening news broadcast. Leading out of the weather report by meteorologist Nick Gregory, it appears Anastos was hoping to remark to the weatherman in a lead-out: "It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast; keep plucking that chicken." This is a riff on a commercial for Perdue Farms that had been airing in 2009.

Instead, during the prime-time broadcast, Anastos inadvertently said: "It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast; keep fucking that chicken."

Co-anchor Dari Alexander froze and WNYW went immediately to commercial.

Personal life and death

Anastos's grandfather and namesake was the Greek Orthodox priest Fr. Anastasios Anastasiou.

Anastos died of pneumonia at Northern Westchester Hospital on March 12, 2026, at the age of 82.

Awards

Anastos received 30 Emmy Awards and nominations, including the Emmy Lifetime Award and Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing. and held honorary doctorate degrees from Marist College, Sacred Heart University and New York Institute of Technology. In May 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Manhattanville College.

See also

  • New Yorkers in journalism

References

  • Ernie Anastos on MyFoxNY
  • https://abc7ny.com/post/ernie-anastos-death-iconic-nyc-news-anchor-eyewitness-anchorman-dies-82/18707234/