Former CBS Chicago anchorman Bill Kurtis to retire from role as judge on NPR's "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!"
A man who is best known to generations of Chicagoans as CBS Chicago's principal anchorman will soon be retiring from his latest act on the airwaves.
After 12 years, Bill Kurtis is stepping away from his gig as a judge on the NPR weekly news quiz show "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!" alongside host Peter Sagal.
Kurtis, 85, told staff in a memo on Monday that being on the show has been a consistent joy.
"There is no better way to stay young than to surround yourself with this crew of outrageously talented people who have no fear in taking down anything and anyone with a well-placed joke," Kurtis said in a statement released by NPR. "Then to let me give it voice and be standing there when the roar of laughter comes rolling back from the audience. No better feeling! What an incredible chapter Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me is in my life."
Kurtis' last show will air Memorial Day weekend.
Kurtis first arrived in Chicago in 1966, after receiving a call from CBS Chicago following his coverage of a tornado on Topeka, Kansas, TV station WIBW. He worked as a street reporter and later took on anchoring duties and documentaries at Channel 2.
In his early years with the station, Kurtis covered the riots in Chicago following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, and the unrest surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later that same year.
In 1970, Kurtis joined CBS News on the national level as a West Coast correspondent.
In 1973, management lured Kurtis back to CBS Chicago as principal anchor, working alongside commentator and anchorman Walter Jacobson. The team turned the Channel 2 News into a powerhouse in Chicago, with Kurtis traveling the country and the world in search of Chicago angles on national and international stories for his acclaimed "Focus" reports.
With Kurtis, Jacobson, fellow anchorman Harry Porterfield, weathermen John Coughlin and Harry Volkman, and sports director Johnny Morris at the helm, the Channel 2 News hit number one in the ratings in 1979.
Kurtis served another stint at CBS News national from 1982 to 1985, working in New York as co-anchor of the CBS Morning News — now known as CBS Mornings. He returned to CBS Chicago in 1985 and spent another 11 years on the anchor desk, fronting the 10 p.m. news alongside Jacobson and later Linda MacLennan, before departing CBS in 1996.
In 2009, Kurtis returned to CBS Chicago once more, for what became an encore run anchoring with Jacobson at 6 p.m. The pair retired from CBS Chicago in 2013.
Kurtis is also known for his true crime documentaries that aired for many years on A&E, and as the narrator for the movie "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."
Kurtis' memoir, "Whirlwind: My Life Reporting the News," was released in September 2025.
Kurtis officially joined "Wait Wait! Don't Tell Me…" in 2014, taking over as judge and scorekeeper for the late NPR newsman Carl Kasell.
"Wait Wait! Don't Tell Me…" is taped in Chicago before a live studio audience at the Studebaker Theater inside the Fine Arts Building, at 410 S. Michigan Ave. The show also goes on tour around the country.
