Jessica Beth Savitch (February 1, 1947 – October 23, 1983) was an American television journalist who was the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News and daily newsreader for NBC News during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Savitch was one of the first women to anchor an evening network newscast alone, following in the footsteps of Marlene Sanders of ABC News and Catherine Mackin of NBC News. She also hosted PBS's public affairs program Frontline from its January 1983 debut until her death in a car crash the following October.
Savitch was known for her audience appeal and her skill as an on-camera news reader, although she drew criticism for her relative lack of journalism experience. Prior to joining NBC News, she was a popular local anchorwoman in Philadelphia and before that, while working at a Houston television station, she was the first female news anchor in the South.
Jessica Savitch was born on February 1, 1947, in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the eldest daughter of Florence (née Goldberger), a navy nurse, and David “Buddy” Savitch, who ran a clothing store. Her father was of Serbian Slavic and Jewish heritage and her maternal grandfather was of German and Russian Jewish heritage. Her maternal grandmother was of Italian American heritage and she was also Catholic.
Buddy Savitch suffered from nephritis, an incurable kidney disease. He died in 1959, when he was 33 and Jessica was 12. Her family then moved from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, to Margate City, New Jersey. While attending Atlantic City High School, Savitch got a job co-hosting a rock show for teenagers on radio station WOND in Pleasantville; she soon became a newsreader and disc jockey for WOND as well. She was the first female disc jockey in the Pleasantville area.
Following her graduation from high school, Savitch attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, as a communications major. She was an announcer for the college’s television station, WICB, and worked in radio at nearby Rochester's WBBF (now WROC-AM). There, she did voice-over commercial work, and became a popular top 40 disc jockey known as "Honeybee". She graduated from Ithaca College in 1968, but remained connected to the college, returning periodically to teach a mini-course on television news.
In 1969, Savitch was hired as an administrative assistant at WCBS, the CBS Radio flagship news station in New York City, where she also did freelance production work. WCBS refused to hire her as a reporter because she had no professional experience. With the permission of news director Ed Joyce and the help of a three-person crew, Savitch used the WCBS-TV facilities to make a television audition tape and sent copies to hundreds of television stations around the country seeking an on-air position. This included all cities big enough to have all three television networks. She received fewer than a dozen responses, and only got one job interview.
Despite her lack of broadcast news experience, Savitch was hired by KHOU-TV in Houston as the station's first female reporter. Dick John, the manager who hired her, said he did so because he was impressed with her ambition as well as her copywriting and speaking skills. When Savitch arrived at KHOU, she was the only female working in the news department other than one secretary; colleagues helped her learn the basics of her job. Because KHOU was non-union, she participated in many aspects of production as well as reporting on camera. A few months after joining KHOU, Savitch auditioned for and won a weekend anchor shift, becoming the first female news anchor in the South and beginning to develop the formal, mannered style of news delivery for which she later became known. Her report on a train derailment and fire received national exposure on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
In November 1972, Savitch joined KYW-TV, then the NBC affiliate (now CBS O&O) in Philadelphia, as a general assignment reporter and weekend anchor under a five-year contract.
Unlike the Houston station, this station was unionized, so Savitch was not permitted to do work other than on-camera newsreading and reporting. At the time KYW hired Savitch, it was under pressure from the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) to place more women in then-non-traditional roles on the local news or else face a possible legal challenge to its broadcast license. When she was initially unable to obtain a weeknight anchor shift, Savitch attempted to break her KYW contract and take a job offered by CBS in New York. KYW refused to release her from her contract but agreed to raise her salary and (partly to satisfy NOW) make her a weeknight anchor. Savitch soon began to anchor noon news broadcasts as well, and eventually became part of a popular team of three anchors with Mort Crim and Vince Leonard on the 11:00pm news. Philadelphia viewers responded enthusiastically to her on-camera presence.
Impressed with her performance, NBC offered her a three-year contract starting in September 1977 as a Washington, D.C. correspondent and anchor. Savitch did her last newscast for KYW in August 1977.
Savitch got along well with some members of the KYW staff, including her regular location shooting crew, and her co-anchor Mort Crim. Crim later admitted that he was initially "not nice to her" due to his own male chauvinism, but the two later became good friends.
Savitch won recognition for multi-part feature stories on unusual (for that time) topics. For example, Philadelphia KYW news director Jim Topping, inspired by his and his wife’s experience attending Lamaze classes, assigned Savitch to cover a five-part series on natural childbirth. Savitch and her camera crew reported on a local family who were expecting a second child. When it appeared this baby might not be born in time for the heavily-advertised series, the crew even compiled a list of other expectant mothers in the area as back-up; the baby was, in fact, born four days before the start date.
This series on childbirth began as scheduled on Monday and on Thursday, November 22, 1973 — Thanksgiving Day — showed much of the actual birth. Almost Golden states, “when KYW brought the scene into the audience’s living rooms on a warm holiday evening, it made for powerful television.” In addition, Topping told Savitch, “You've made your career."
Savitch frequently personalized her stories by making herself a part of them, such as serving as an undercover decoy [with police officers unobtrusively posted along the route] for two weeks as part of her series about rape. This series, entitled "Rape . . . the Ultimate Violation", won a Clarion Award for excellence from Women in Communications, Inc. In addition, KYW Philly received many requests for rebroadcast which it met. The series was also screened by community groups and state legislatures in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, helping to bring about legislative changes, and motivating several state and local governments to open rape crisis centers.
For the series which was titled “Lady Law,” Savitch primarily interviewed female law enforcement professionals from other cities. However, she also completed the Philadelphia Police Academy's training course, and she also engaged in activities such as shooting a handgun, jumping over oil barrels, squeezing under a barrier, and climbing a six-foot wall. This series won Savitch two awards, but it also left her with sore muscles and a “wrenched back” for some weeks afterwards.
Other multi-part series which starred Savitch included: single adults, marriage mills of Las Vegas, impact of divorce on American society, issue of when life begins and ends, Pennsylvania snow skiing in the Pocono Mountains, the “New Philadelphia Sound” in music, and traveling to Hollywood to interview Joey Bishop, Peter Boyle, Eddie Fisher and other Philadelphians who had made it big in show business.
Filling airtime during a technical problem which occurred during a 1976 Presidential debate
In 1976, she came to the attention of NBC executives while she was reporting from the first presidential campaign debate between President Gerald Ford and Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter, which was held at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre. An audio line failed, delaying the debate and leaving three KYW reporters, including Savitch, to fill the 27 minutes of air time before the audio could be restored. KYW producer Cliff Abromats stated, “She [Savitch] was very good on her feet. She could think fast and ask the right questions, and she had the ability so many lack, to actually listen to the answer. Jessica would never miss it when someone said something unexpected.”