As expected, "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley has been named anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News," replacing the exiting Katie Couric.
The network did nothing to tamp down widespread speculation that Pelley would take over, which began almost immediately after it became apparent Couric was likely to leave. The anchor formally announced her plans last week. Her future likely include a daytime talk show, either on CBS or elsewhere.
Pelley will take Couric's place Monday, June 6, and continue to report for "60 Minutes." Couric's contract expires two days earlier. She became the first solo female nightly news anchor when she took the job in 2006.
CBS noted that since he joined "60 Minutes" in 2004, half of all the major awards won by the broadcast have been for stories he reported.
"Scott has it all. He has the experience, the credibility and he is among the very best reporters ever to work at CBS News," said CBS News Chairman and "60 Minutes" executive producer Jeff Fager, who announced the change with CBS News president David Rhodes. "In more than two decades at CBS News, he has distinguished himself at every level, right up to his current role at '60 Minutes,' where his work has been incomparable. We like to think of CBS News as the 'reporter's network' and I can't think of anybody in this business better suited for the anchor chair than Scott."
Said Pelley: "I am delighted to join the terrific team at the 'CBS Evening News.' It's a privilege to work alongside the most gifted and talented journalists in the industry."
Pelley's recent "60 Minutes" reports have included covering the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the mass murder in Tucson that seriously wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
He has interviewed President Bush; Afghan President Hamid Karzai; Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — who gave the first interview by a sitting chairman in decades. Pelley's report on Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon, won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia award.
He has also done several stories on "The Great Recession," investigated American "e-waste," and covered Sept. 11, the Clinton White House, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In all, Pelley and his team have received the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, two George Foster Peabody awards, 14 national Emmy awards, five Edward R. Murrow awards, a George Polk and a Loeb award, as well as honors from the Society of Professional Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Writers Guild of America. He earned 21 of the awards for his work over the past five years on "60 Minutes."
Pelley is the co-chair of the the board of directors of the International Rescue Committee, a refugee relief agency.
Prior to his time at CBS News, he was a producer/reporter for several Texas TV stations. He began his journalism career at the age of 15 as a copyboy at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal newspaper.
Pelley was born in San Antonio, Texas, and attended journalism school at Texas Tech University. He has a son and daughter with his wife, Jane Boone Pelley.
