CONNIE CHUNG
Name: Connie Chung
Born: 20 August 1946 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has
appeared on many USA television news networks.
The youngest of ten children (of whom she and four others survived) of a
high-ranking Republic of China diplomat from Taiwan, she was born and raised in
Washington, D.C. She graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver
Spring, Maryland, and went on to receive a degree in journalism at the
University of Maryland, College Park in 1969. She has been married to talk show
host Maury Povich since 1984. Chung converted to Judaism upon her marriage to
Povich. Chung announced that she was reducing her workload in 1991 in the
hopes of getting pregnant. Together, they have one son, Matthew Jay Povich,
adopted on June 20, 1995.
Chung's network television career has spanned NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC.
Chung was a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for the CBS Evening News with
Walter Cronkite in the early 1970s, during the Watergate political scandal.
Later, Chung left for the Los Angeles-owned and operated station of CBS, KNXT (now
KCBS). She then moved to the nation's second largest (and highest paying) local
markets, southern California. Chung also anchored the CBS Newsbriefs for the
west coast stations from the KNXT studios at Columbia Square during her tenure
there.
She returned with great fanfare to network news as NBC created a new early
program, NBC News at Sunrise, which was scheduled right before the popular Today
program. Later, NBC created American Almanac, which she co-hosted with Roger
Mudd, after Mudd left the NBC Nightly News, where he co-anchored for two years
with Tom Brokaw.
Chung left NBC for CBS where she hosted Saturday Night with Connie Chung, and on
June 1, 1993, she became the second woman (after Barbara Walters with ABC in
1976) to co-anchor a major network’s national news broadcast (with CBS; the solo
national news anchor title goes to Sophie Thibault, with the French-Canadian
network TVA in 2002, and in the United States, to Katie Couric at CBS.). While
hosting the CBS Evening News, Chung also hosted a side project on CBS, Eye to
Eye with Connie Chung. After her unsuccessful co-anchoring stint with Dan Rather
ended in 1995, Chung jumped to ABC News where she co-hosted 20/20 and began
independent interviews, a field which would soon become her trademark.
Chung's interviews were largely gentle, but often they were punctuated by a
rapid-fire barrage of sharp questions. Despite this, her interviews were still
widely recognized as being decidedly softer than those of other interviewers,
such as Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace. Consequently, her interviews were often
used as a public relations move by those looking to overcome scandal or
controversy. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bulow
and U.S. Representative Gary Condit.
Name: Connie Chung
Born: 20 August 1946 Washington, D.C., U.S.
Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has
appeared on many USA television news networks.
The youngest of ten children (of whom she and four others survived) of a
high-ranking Republic of China diplomat from Taiwan, she was born and raised in
Washington, D.C. She graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver
Spring, Maryland, and went on to receive a degree in journalism at the
University of Maryland, College Park in 1969. She has been married to talk show
host Maury Povich since 1984. Chung converted to Judaism upon her marriage to
Povich. Chung announced that she was reducing her workload in 1991 in the
hopes of getting pregnant. Together, they have one son, Matthew Jay Povich,
adopted on June 20, 1995.
Chung's network television career has spanned NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC.
Chung was a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for the CBS Evening News with
Walter Cronkite in the early 1970s, during the Watergate political scandal.
Later, Chung left for the Los Angeles-owned and operated station of CBS, KNXT (now
KCBS). She then moved to the nation's second largest (and highest paying) local
markets, southern California. Chung also anchored the CBS Newsbriefs for the
west coast stations from the KNXT studios at Columbia Square during her tenure
there.
She returned with great fanfare to network news as NBC created a new early
program, NBC News at Sunrise, which was scheduled right before the popular Today
program. Later, NBC created American Almanac, which she co-hosted with Roger
Mudd, after Mudd left the NBC Nightly News, where he co-anchored for two years
with Tom Brokaw.
Chung left NBC for CBS where she hosted Saturday Night with Connie Chung, and on
June 1, 1993, she became the second woman (after Barbara Walters with ABC in
1976) to co-anchor a major network’s national news broadcast (with CBS; the solo
national news anchor title goes to Sophie Thibault, with the French-Canadian
network TVA in 2002, and in the United States, to Katie Couric at CBS.). While
hosting the CBS Evening News, Chung also hosted a side project on CBS, Eye to
Eye with Connie Chung. After her unsuccessful co-anchoring stint with Dan Rather
ended in 1995, Chung jumped to ABC News where she co-hosted 20/20 and began
independent interviews, a field which would soon become her trademark.
Chung's interviews were largely gentle, but often they were punctuated by a
rapid-fire barrage of sharp questions. Despite this, her interviews were still
widely recognized as being decidedly softer than those of other interviewers,
such as Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace. Consequently, her interviews were often
used as a public relations move by those looking to overcome scandal or
controversy. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bulow
and U.S. Representative Gary Condit.