CNBC pulls the plug on ‘The News With Shepard Smith’ after a 17-year run
CNBC has announced, via staff, that the “The News With Shepard Smith” program after 17 years on the air will be discontinued in September 2019.
The news of the discontinuation comes after Smith, his anchor and fellow CNBC personalities, Brian Sullivan and Becky Quick, and “The Edge,” a weekly news magazine show on the network, all signed off the program as part of a two-year contract.
In addition, Smith signed an extension for a second contract of two years. The final year was due to expire Sept. 21. The station has not yet announced plans to extend the contracts of the three.
But the news comes a little after Smith, who has been with CNBC since the fall of 2005, announced that he would be taking a year-long hiatus to spend time with his family. He had been at the station for nearly a decade with his work as a host on “The New York Times Street Level” and co-host on “The 5,000 Hours of Traffic.”
Smith’s decision was based on the fact that he was tired of working “everyday in the same way for the rest of my life.”
“When I told them, they said ‘no problem’ and I started thinking, what am I doing?” Smith said. “I’m doing it for a year. I’m still going to go to work every day and I’m not going to work 10, 12 hours a day and then come home and be like ‘that’s enough. You know, I can work this job for the next four years.’ So I decided this is what I’m doing.”
“I told them I would quit if they didn’t renew my contract, I would’ve quit long before if [the contract] hadn’t kept a good work schedule. I told them I don’t care if I have to work like that to keep my career alive. I care about the person I am as a person and what I’m doing and making my money and I just think
