CBS Fires Josh Elliott
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On Friday, Josh Elliott signed off from CBS's digital channel saying that he was promoted to CBS News.
That promotion did not last long, Today Elliott was fired from CBS.
This morning, FTVLive wrote, on Friday, Elliott told his viewer(s) that it was his last day at CBSN. He's moving to CBS News, where he will take field assignments and report long form pieces across all CBS platforms including CBSN, the network said.
"It has been by any measure a great stay here at CBSN," he said.
There was a problem in Elliott's announcement, his bosses did not know he would be spilling the beans.
"This is a mess of epic proportions," a network source told the NY Post. "Nobody at the top at CBS News knew that Josh was going to do that."
The Post reports that Elliott had recently met with Laurie Orlando, the network’s head of talent, who told him she wanted him to take on a bigger role at CBS News. “Then Josh announced his departure without warning,” said the insider. “Executives at CBS were stunned.”
Then Today, according to a source, “Josh was called to a meeting with CBS News heads including [president] David Rhodes and fired. He was escorted out of the building by security.” The source added, “Meanwhile, Laurie Orlando, who seems to be responsible for much of this mess, is missing. Nobody has seen her. This is a mystifying situation.”
Sources close to Elliott had claimed Friday that his executive producer dropped the ball by not alerting higher-ups, including Rhodes, that he was announcing his departure from CBSN.
“They totally bungled their own announcement,” said the source. “There was no communication.”
“CBS News and Josh Elliott are parting ways. Josh will no longer be reporting for CBS News. We are grateful for his contributions over the last year, and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors,” CBS News told us in a statement.
Elliott now has the dubious distinction of having left all three main networks.
