Sue Picked A Bad Week To Say ‘Fuck’ On Live TV

I came into this world right about the same time Sue began her career at NBC and I've been watching her for as long as I can remember. I grew up with "Live at 5", Sue, Chuck, Jack Cafferty and the immortal Gabe Pressman. Sue and Chuck and channel 4 have come to signify NYC to me; its the only station I turn to for news. NBC, CNBC, MSNBC; so long as it ends with NBC.

Well, silly Sue Simmons slipped and said "FUCK" during a slow news week and now its gone "viral"; everyone is running wild with the story, pregnant with alliterations of course.

By yesterday afternoon NBC brass had yanked the now infamous footage from every viral fratboy prank site from YouTube to Break. And this morning I came across 50 different articles on a Google news search and naturally she's on the cover of today's Post. Point being, a slow news week is a bad week to act out and now Sue is the news.

Headlines like "On-air expletive raises question about Simmons' future", "Sue Simmons of WNBC Drops the F-Bomb" and of course "SILLY SUE A SALTY SWILLER, POTTY MOUTH'S 'TIPSY' ANTICS" are everywhere. Keeping in mind people outside the tri-state area have no idea who the fuck Sue Simmons is.






















Apparently Sue was berating poor Chuck Scarborough, her strait-laced partner in crime for the past, oh, 500,000 years on NBC.

According to my secret source at Channel 4, Sue and Scarborough thought the spot was being taped. When they were cued, Sue read her line: “At 11, paying more at the grocer, but getting less. We’ll tell you how to get the most.”

Producers then cut to an image for an upcoming story about a cruise ship, a story which Chuck was supposed to read the narrative for but he was asleep at the wheel, thinking this was just a rehearsal - in fact if you watch the footage Chuck is looking down the entire time. At that point, Simmons basically said to her long time surrogate news husband "What are you doing?!"

And naturally now everyone is saying she's a drunk, she's a lush, she's an asshole behind the scenes, she's a diva and yadda yadda yadda, and yeah, I'm sure she is all of that. I've see the cat fight in her eyes when she hands it to her secret nemesis that spring chicken Janice Huff.

My source said Simmons most certainly believed the "tease" - industry jargon for a brief cut-in that promotes a later broadcast - was being taped. It was supposed to be a pre-taped piece and wound up live," my source said. "She didn't know it was live and blurted that out. Scarborough may have missed a cue, prompting Simmons' outburst."

I've always wondered what they did between newscasts because Sue anchors the 5 o'clock news and then has to chill out until 11 PM. Well apparently Sue spends those hours at Gallagher's Steakhouse and Jean Georges drinking cocktails, of course.

An anonymous employee at Jean Georges of Columbus Circle said Sue isn't shy about drinking with her meals before heading back to work. "She's been here and she's had drinks with her dinner," a Jean Georges employee said. "She's had a cocktail or two, yes, between shows, with dinner."

But that doesn't mean she was drunk when she said "FUCK" on air, she just didn't know they were live.

A former WNBC employee said Simmons - famous for her "mischievous" studio behavior - believed she was off air and was joking with Scarborough. "My impression was that she was directing it at Chuck, thinking it was his gaffe for not reading," Several other former Channel 4 employees, who praised Simmons' offbeat personality, said the anchor is famous for sailor-like swearing.

Top Ten Angry On-Camera Meltdowns {Gawker}