Background

Harry Smith was born on August 21, 1951, in Lansing, Michigan. Harry attended Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he earned his degree in communications and theater. Smith began his broadcasting career working in radio, mainly in Denver, Colorado, from 1973 through 1985.

Relationships

Harry Smith is married to a sportscaster named Andrea Joyce. The couple has two sons and lives in New York City.

He is a cyclist who commutes to the NBC studios in New York City on a folding bike and rides a "racing" road bicycle.

Career

Smith began his broadcasting career with radio stations KHOW and KIMN in Denver, Colorado, and WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1973 until 1981. He worked for Denver's public television station, KRMA-TV, from 1981 to 1982. He worked as a reporter and anchor for KMGH-TV, a CBS affiliate in Denver, from 1982 until 1985. (the station is now affiliated with ABC). Smith started as a reporter for CBS News in 1986 and was promoted to a correspondent in 1987.

Smith worked as a contributor to The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, 48 Hours, and CBS News documentaries for thirteen years. He spent most of his CBS career as the anchor of the CBS morning show. He was a co-anchor of CBS This Morning from November 30, 1987, to June 14, 1996. Smith was featured on the CBS Evening News in a weekly program called "Travels with Harry" after leaving the show, which looked at unusual individuals and places across the country. He hosted the A&E Network television series Biography and The History Channel's Modern Marvels beginning in 1999.

Smith returned to the CBS morning show, renamed The Early Show, on October 28, 2002. He presented the show for eight years before CBS announced Smith's departure, along with co-anchors Maggie Rodriguez and Dave Price, at the end of 2010. On December 31, 2010, he told his departure from the show. Smith had spent a total of seventeen years on a CBS morning show by that point. Smith joined CBS News as a Senior Correspondent and replacement anchor for the CBS Evening News, Face the Nation, and CBS News Sunday Morning after leaving the show. Smith also wrote a daily Harry Smith Reporting commentary for the CBS Radio Network in addition to his television obligations.

Smith announced his departure from CBS News on July 8, 2011, following twenty-five years with the network. Smith would later join NBC News and contribute to the prime-time newsmagazine program Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Smith has continued to report on various NBC News platforms and fill in as a replacement anchor on NBC Nightly News since the cancellation of Rock Center with Brian Williams. In a feature dubbed "Sundays with Harry," he delivers a weekly narrative to the weekend edition of NBC's Today on Sunday mornings.

Smith began stepping in as co-host on the weekend edition of NBC's Today with Erica Hill, a former colleague from The Early Show, in the fall of 2015. Since Lester Holt was designated weekday anchor of NBC Nightly News, Smith has been part of a rotating set of co-hosts who have been occupying the co-anchor chair.