Linda Ellerbee is an American journalist.
Ellerbee began in print journalism. In 1972, Ellerbee was hired as a reporter by the Dallas bureau of the Associated Press. She was later hired by the News Director of the Houston CBS television affiliate KHOU, who told her she “wrote funny.” Within a year, she was recruited by New York’s WCBS-TV as the “hard news” reporter for its 11:00 p.m. newscast.
In 1974, Ellerbee moved to NBC News, where she spent four years covering national politics before joining Lloyd Dobyns as co-anchor and writer of the weekly prime-time news magazine, Weekend. In 1982, Ellerbee was again teamed with Dobyns (and later Bill Schechner) on NBC News Overnight. The show was cited by the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards as “possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever.”
By 1986, NBC News Overnight had been cancelled and Ellerbee had moved to ABC, where (with Ray Gandolf) she wrote and anchored Our World, a weekly primetime historical series. She won an Emmy for her writing in 1987, the same year the show was cancelled. Following that, Ellerbee and producer/director Rolfe Tessem quit ABC to start Lucky Duck Productions, a New York-based company that produced news, documentaries, specials and series for broadcast and cable.
In 1991, Lucky Duck Productions began producing the series Nick News with Linda Ellerbee for Nickelodeon. Ellerbee also wrote and anchored the series, which earned honors traditionally associated with adult programming. Known for the respectful and direct way it spoke to children about important national and international issues, Nick News also collected three Peabody Awards (including one personal Peabody given to Ellerbee for her coverage of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment), an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award, and ten Emmys for Outstanding Children’s Program of the year.
Ellerbee’s work has been seen all over television, as Lucky Duck Productions has produced specials for ABC, CBS, HBO, PBS, Lifetime, MTV, A&E, MSNBC, Animal Planet and TV Land. In 2004, Ellerbee and Lucky Duck Productions were honored with another Emmy, this time for the series When I Was a Girl, which aired on WE (Women’s Entertainment Network).
In 2011, at the Gracie Awards, the Alliance for Women in Media recognized Ellerbee’s work with its Tribute Award, the organization’s highest honor. That same year, Ellerbee received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Children’s Television at the annual Banff International Media Festival.
Ellerbee retired from television in 2015.
