Chicago Station Drags its Feet on Anchor's Replacement

It’s been four months since Susan Carlson was dumped as the morning anchor at WBBM in Chicago. It appears that the station is nowhere closer to naming her replacement than the day they kicked her to the curb. 

Our man Robert Feder says that since Carlson's exit, weekend anchor Marissa Bailey (pictured) and midday anchor Roseanne Tellez have been filling in alongside co-anchor Kris Gutierrez.

WBBM bosses never cited a reason for dropping Carlson after 10 years at the station, but their delay in naming a replacement suggests they had no plan other than to save money.

As soon as her CBS contract expired in July, Carlson landed not one but two jobs. She was hired to succeed the retired Jim Johnson as afternoon news anchor at Cumulus Media news/talk WLS AM 890, where she’d worked from 1998 to 2002. And she joined NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 as a per diem reporter.

While the search for Carlson’s replacement goes on, candidates who’ve come through the CBS 2 newsroom included Sherry Williams, a weekend news anchor at KHOU-TV, the CBS affiliate in Houston. But if Gutierrez is any closer to getting a new permanent partner, it will come as a surprise to his colleagues.

A CBS 2 spokeswoman said Monday there were no announcements planned for this week.

So the waiting game continues.