I just got an anonymous e-mail that reads: “Chris Curtis, NBC 29’s newest weatherman has been let go. Rumors are flying and there are lots of unhappy people in that newsroom right now.”
I have no idea if this is true, but since his name has disappeared from their website (before, after), it certainly seems that he’s no longer with them. Can anybody confirm or clarify? NBC 29 employees who want to toss in their $0.02 but also value their anonymity are welcome to contact me privately.
8:00pm Update: I’ve now talked with several folks at NBC 29, all anonymously, who have explained what’s going. It seems that there are not, in fact, many unhappy people in the newsroom, save for those weatherfolk who have to work the Christmas hours that Curtis would have worked. I’m told that Curtis has been arrested twice for public indecency and lewd exposure, in February and October of this year. Apparently this happened while he was at WCIA-TV, in Champaign, IL. (Though multiple sources tell me this, I can’t confirm this independently.)
This is a problem for NBC 29 because of their “morals clause,” which requires on-air staff to maintain a solid public image — Curtis signed it without disclosing his arrests. Note that he has not been convicted of anything. I don’t know Illinois law, but in Virginia just taking a leak in the woods is enough to be arrested on these charges. Curtis has a court date in a month’s time.
That’s a first. I’ve been around the ‘ville for the better part of a decade now, and I can’t recall hearing about anyone being fired. Even that girl that cost 29 millions in the lawsuit a few years back wasn’t let go…was she? People do leave all the time (Dave Cupp a year ago, and the three who left the same day this summer)…but being given the pink slip?
Cvillenewser: You hit it right. It’s extremely unusual for 29 to let anyone go. Food for thought: take a look at some of their production work during newscasts. WVIR has people doing technical work who shouldn’t even be allowed to change batteries. 29 always gets caught with their pants down BECAUSE they never fire any technical folks. Maybe this will be the first move in a new trend.
“Morals Clause?” I though those were ancient history. and went the way of the studio system and Louie B. Mayer. I don’t think anyone should have to sign one of those. I wouldn’t.
I’m not a lawyer but I think Public indecency and lewd exposure, could range from getting caught taking a pee in an allyway to getting caught recieving oral sex (in a similarly public location) from someone the police cannot prove is a prostitute. Everyone’s guilty of bad judgement at one time or another, but it’s nothing anyone should be fired for.
Some of this might be due to his reporting. His delivery was very strange. It was like a stuttering kind of flow. At first I thought it was funny but then I started to feel bad for him. I couldn’t tell if he was nervous or if that was just his way of reporting/speaking.
As far as the station goes, it looked as if they were giving him multiple chances at correcting this. In the begining he did all of the weather. Then they made him do half the weather (with Eric Pritchett). Finally, they had him report under an icy tree. All of those reports were very uncomfortable/humurous to watch in my opinion.
Trvlnmn:
What is a studio system?
It is a little ridiculous this guy was fired without any conviction. 29 must not be familiar with the caviat “innocent until proven guilty.”