Constance Yu-Hwa Chung Povich better known as Connie Chung, is an American journalist.
She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC,
CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S.
Representative Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance,
and basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson after he went public about being HIV-positive.
In 1995 she was removed as CBS Evening News co-anchor after a controversial interview
with a fireman which seemed inappropriately combative, during rescue efforts at the Oklahoma
City bombing and her interview tactics to get Newt Gingrich's mother to admit her unguarded
thoughts about Hillary Clinton. She is married to talk show host Maury Povich
and they have one adopted son, Matthew Jay Povich.
Background The youngest of ten children, Chung was born
and raised in Washington, D.C. less than a year after her family immigrated. Her father,
William Ling Chung, was an intelligence officer in the Chinese Nationalist Government.
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 has become devoted to the faith, and attends synagogue with her
family. Chung has noted publicly that she and Povich maintain a kosher lifestyle year
round. Chung announced that she was reducing her workload in 1991 in the hopes of getting
pregnant. Together, they have one son whom they adopted on June 20, 1995, Matthew Jay
Povich. He attended the Allen-Stevenson School and now attends the Riverdale Country School.
Career 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 which was
in the nation's second largest local market, 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 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 to co-anchor a
major network's national news broadcast. 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 the
Monday edition of 20/20 with Charles Gibson 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 Bülow and U.S. Representative
Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance. Chung
was the first journalist to interview basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson after he went
public about being HIV-positive. Chung was a judge for the Miss Universe 2011
contest. Kathleen Gingrich interview controversy
In a January 5, 1995 interview with Kathleen Gingrich, mother of Republican politician
Newt Gingrich, on Eye to Eye, Mrs. Gingrich said she could not say what her son thought
about First Lady Hillary Clinton on the air. Chung asked Mrs. Gingrich to "just whisper
it to me, just between you and me," and Mrs. Gingrich replied that her son thought of Clinton
as a "bitch". Many people interpreted Chung's suggestion that if Mrs. Gingrich would whisper
this statement it would be promised that the statement would be off the record. Bill Carter
for the New York Times reported, "Ms. Chung had become the object of some of the most
ferocious criticism, justified or not, ever directed at any network anchor as a result
of her now infamous interview with Speaker Newt Gingrich's mother, Kathleen." The interview
was also parodied on Saturday Night Live. ABC and CNN
After making the jump to ABC News as a co-host of the Monday edition of 20/20 alongside Charles
Gibson, she had an interview with Gary Condit on his relationship with murdered Washington,
D.C., intern Chandra Levy. She was a guest host of the morning program,
Good Morning America. After short-lived host Lisa McRee left the program, Chung declined
to take over on a permanent basis, saying she did not want to broadcast 10 hours a week
in early morning hours. Chung briefly hosted her own show on CNN entitled
Connie Chung Tonight, where she was paid $2 million per year. Though her arrival at CNN
was heavily hyped by the network, her show was panned by critics. CNN changed her show
from live to tape-delay to make it flow better. Although it did moderately well in the ratings,
her show was suspended once the 2003 Iraq War began. During the war, she was reduced
to reading hourly headlines. Once CNN resumed regular programming, Chung requested that
CNN resume broadcasting her show as soon as possible. The network responded by cancelling
it, even though her contract had not yet expired. In an interview, CNN founder Ted Turner called
the show "just awful". Martina Navratilova interview
In July 2002 Chung interviewed tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who at that point had
been a naturalized U.S. citizen for more than 20 years, about her recent criticisms of the
U.S. political system. Chung labelled these criticisms "un-American" and "unpatriotic",
and suggested Navratilova should "go back to Czechoslovakia" rather than use her celebrity
status to gain a platform for her complaints. When Navratilova asked why it was unpatriotic
to speak out, Chung replied, "Well, you know the old line, love it or leave it."
MSNBC In January 2006, Chung and Maury Povich began
hosting a show titled Weekends with Maury and Connie on MSNBC. It was Chung's first
appearance as a television host since 2003. The show was later cancelled and aired its
final episode on June 17, 2006. On this episode, Chung, dressed in a white evening gown and
writhing atop a black piano, sang a parody to the tune of Thanks for the Memory. Video
clips of the bizarre, off-key farewell performance circulated on internet video sites. Connie
herself commented, "All I want to be sure of is that viewers understood it was a giant
self-parody. If anyone took it seriously, they really need to get a life." On the June
27, 2006, episode of The Tonight Show, Chung was interviewed by Jay Leno regarding her
"Thanks for the Memories" parody. During the interview, Chung poked fun at her show's low
ratings, referring to the musical number as a "private joke for our two viewers."
Teaching Chung accepted a teaching fellowship at the
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. While at Harvard, she wrote a discussion paper
titled The Business of Getting "The Get": Nailing an Exclusive Interview in Prime Time.
Career timeline 1983–1986: NBC News at Sunrise anchor
1989–1990: Saturday Night with Connie Chung anchor
1993–1995: Eye to Eye with Connie Chung anchor
1998–2002: 20/20 anchor 1999–2000: ABC 2000 Today correspondent
2002–2003: Connie Chung Tonight anchor 2006: Weekends with Maury and Connie anchor
References
External links Connie Chung at the Internet Movie Database
Maury Povich and Connie Chung Discuss Work and Family on Larry King Live
Lifetime's Intimate Portrait: Connie Chung Mates: Maury and Connie - New York Magazine
"Countdown with Keith Olbermann" for June 22, 2006: Interview with Connie Chung after
her farewell song Connie Chung, The Business of Getting "The
Get": Nailing an Exclusive Interview in Prime Time April, 1998. D-28.
Connie Chung Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America
Connie Chung interview video at the Archive of American Television