Legendary News Anchor Dead At 82

Legendary New York news anchor Ernie Anastos, a steady Big Apple voice for generations of viewers, has died. He was 82.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Ernie Anastos, who died at the age of 82,” Fox 5 said in a statement posted online Thursday afternoon.

“An Emmy Award-winning journalist and beloved former Fox 5 news anchor, his voice, integrity, and lasting impact on New York journalism will never be forgotten.”

Anastos died early Thursday of pneumonia at Northern Westchester Hospital, his wife told CBS 2.

His broadcast career stretched across decades in New York, with Anastos covering some of the region’s darkest and defining moments, including the 9/11 terror attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, he collected 30 Emmy Awards and nominations and later received a Lifetime Emmy Award.

A proud Greek-American, Anastos worked at several of the city’s biggest stations and was inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

He arrived at ABC 7 in 1978 and stayed through 1989, then moved to CBS 2. He joined WWOR in 1997 and returned to CBS in 2001, according to the state broadcaster association.

Such great man, what a sad day…😢 RIP Ernie Anastos 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/rLXjPR0g6A

— Chris Cristi (@abc7chriscristi) March 12, 2026

In 2005, Anastos joined Fox 5 New York, teaming with Rosanna Scotto as a familiar nightly anchor duo. He stepped away from Fox 5 around 2020 and later enrolled in leadership management classes at Harvard Business School.

Even after leaving the local TV desk, he didn’t leave the fight for straight reporting. A Walter Cronkite admirer, Anastos hosted on 77WABC radio in the years leading up to his death.

“We have to teach truth in our homes and in our schools, wherever we have that opportunity,” he said in a March 3 Instagram video.

“I think we all have to sit back and say let’s stand up for truth and support it and make sure that we live it on a day-to-day basis.”

Anastos also spoke openly about the old-school pressure faced by broadcasters with ethnic surnames. In a 2010 New York Times profile, he recalled bosses urging him to swap out Anastos for something easier.

“Ethnic names were not all that hot,” he recalled.

Tributes flooded in after the news broke.

“I enjoyed working with him, anchoring alongside of him on the 10 o’clock news. He was a good man and someone we really looked up to,” Scotto wrote in a Facebook post.

“We are all heartbroken.”

Former Fox 5 colleague Teresa Priolo called him the “heart of our newsroom.”

“I’m here to confirm, every single good thing you will hear and read about this man is true. And then some. Times 10,” she wrote on Facebook.

“He was the gold standard in life and in this crazy news business.”

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