Quick Facts
Biography
Josh Elliott (born July 6, 1971) is an American television journalist who currently works for CBS News. He has previously worked as the news anchor for ABC's Good Morning America, a sports anchor for NBC Sports and Today, and was a co-anchor for the live telecast of ESPN's morning edition of SportsCenter.
Early life and education
Elliott was born on July 6, 1971 to Susan, who gave Elliott up for adoption. He was adopted by Charles Elliott and Toni Jordan and grew up in Los Angeles, California. When he was 13, his father came out as gay at the time of his parents' divorce. His father later died when Elliott was 15.
After graduating from Loyola High School of Los Angeles, Elliott attended the University of California, Santa Barbara. He originally enrolled at UC Santa Barbara in hopes of joining the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's water polo team, but instead ended up working at the university paper, The Daily Nexus. He graduated from UCSB in 1993 with a B.A. degree in English literature.
Elliot worked as a stringer for the Santa Barbara News-Press. He then moved on to graduate school at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where he earned a Master of Science degree in 1999. He worked in television as a producer for Galaxy Productions before moving onto 20th Century Fox. He began there in comedy development and later worked in physical production. After graduating from Columbia, Elliott worked for Sports Illustrated for six years, covering events in most major sports.
Career
ESPN career
Elliott first joined ESPN in 2004 as a panelist for Around the Horn and Jim Rome Is Burning, as well as serving as guest co-host for Cold Pizza on ESPN2. On ESPN Classic, Elliott hosted the short-lived Classic Now, which aired from June 2005 to March 2006. He also started appearing as a co-anchor on ESPNEWS and reporting for SportsCenter. After Classic Now was canceled, Elliott began contributing to ESPN the Magazine and ESPN.com.
When ESPN began airing SportsCenter live every weekday morning on August 11, 2008, Elliott was paired as an anchor with Hannah Storm for the first three hours of the programming block beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.
Good Morning America
In May 2011, Elliott joined the team at ABC's Good Morning America following the departure of previous news anchor Juju Chang. He also started as a substitute anchor on the weekend edition of ABC World News, debuting on May 21, 2011. It was rumored that due to Elliott's 6'3" height, George Stephanopoulos would be demoted from his anchor position which was discredited by an ABC News spokesperson. Elliott also anchored an afternoon edition of Good Morning America, titled Good Afternoon America weekdays with Lara Spencer from July 9 until September 7, 2012.
NBC
On March 30, 2014, it was announced by ABC News President Ben Sherwood that Elliott had signed a contract with NBC, and would depart ABC News and Good Morning America. Amy Robach was announced as his immediate replacement. With NBC, Elliott made $4 million per year, but a six-month non-compete clause prohibited him from appearing on news-related programming, relegating him primarily to NBC Sports programming such as the 2014 Kentucky Derby—where he made his on-air debut. Upon his hiring, it was believed that NBC was contemplating Elliott to serve as a future host of Today; in response, he told the press that he "[hoped] Matt Lauer is here when I step away from this gig 30 years down the road. I can tell you that the only discussions I have had, as they relate to news, [are] ways to supply sports content to them." Elliott would, eventually, serve as a sports correspondent for the program.
In December 2015, it was reported that Elliott had left NBC.
CBS
On March 1, 2016, CBS announced that it had hired Elliott to serve as the lead anchor for its digital news service CBSN. Of the hiring, CBS News president David Rhodes explained that Elliott needed an "outlet", going on to say that "we're going to need from him as much as he can bring in these different areas of reporting and anchoring. It's another reason it's the perfect place for him because it’s kind of unlimited. We have some really hard-working people at CBSN, but we don't have enough of them." He also serves as substitute co-host for CBS This Morning.
Other work
Elliott received a local Emmy Award in New York City in 2005 for writing and contributing to Angles on MSG Network and served as one of the co-hosts for Super Bowl XL for Westwood One Sports.
Personal life
Elliott is divorced from Priya Narang and they have a daughter named Sarina. In August 2014, Elliott became engaged to news anchor Liz Cho. On July 11, 2015, Elliott and Cho were married in Montecito, California.