Byron Pitts was named co-anchor of ABC News’ “Nightline” in
2014. He has covered national and international news stories as well
as in-depth features for the network, reporting across the news
division, including “Good Morning America,” “World News Tonight
with David Muir,” “This Week” and “20/20.”

Pitts is a multiple Emmy® Award-winning journalist and news veteran
with over 40 years of experience, known for his thoughtful
storytelling, on-the-ground reporting and in-depth interviews. After
less than 24 hours at ABC News, Pitts immediately joined the
network’s live special coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing
investigation. Since then, Pitts has gone on to report live from
Baltimore in 2015, as well as Dallas and Baton Rouge in 2016, during
each city’s riots and protests. He also co-anchored a special
edition of “Nightline” with Juju Chang from Los Angeles, looking
back on the city 25 years after the riots that broke out following the
Rodney King verdict. As part of his work on “Nightline,” Pitts has
recently reported on reparations, the Kentucky tornadoes,
climate-change issues South Carolina’s Gullah Geechee people are
facing, and the battle over the Line 3 pipeline snaking through the
water of Indigenous lands. His extensive global reporting has taken
him to South Africa to cover the death and funeral of Nelson Mandela,
the Arab Spring in Egypt, Cuba for the shift in its state-run economy,
and elsewhere.

During the 2016 and 2020 elections, Pitts was a key part of the
network’s coverage, from the Republican and Democratic national
conventions and the first presidential debates to 14 total hours of
live election night coverage. In the 30 days leading up to the 2016
election, Pitts traveled around the country for “Inside the Final
30,” a daily docuseries produced by “Nightline,” to speak with
voters as they came to their final decisions about who should be the
nation’s next president. It took viewers behind the scenes on the
campaign trail, focused on the issues that matter most to Americans,
and revisited key moments that shaped the direction of the race.

Prior to joining ABC News, Pitts spent 15 years at CBS News, serving
as chief national correspondent for “The CBS Evening News,” filed
regularly for “60 Minutes,” and won an Emmy for his coverage of
the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was named the National Association of
Black Journalists’ Journalist of the Year in 2002, and in 2020, he
received the Radio Television Digital News Association’s highest
honor, the Paul White Award, for his lifetime contributions to
electronic journalism. His 2009 memoir, “Step Out on Nothing: How
Faith and Family Helped Me Conquer Life’s Challenges,” chronicled
his journey overcoming illiteracy and a stutter to become a
journalist. In 2017, Pitts profiled six young adults who overcame
hardship with hope in his book “Be the One.”

Pitts began his career at WNCT-TV in Greenville, North Carolina,
covering local news and serving as a weekend sports anchor. He
graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1982, where he studied
journalism and speech communication. Pitts is a native of Baltimore
and currently lives in New York City.
