Court TV viewers will no longer see Fred Graham each morning on Open Court. The network’s chief anchor and managing editor is leaving the trial-coverage and analysis program he has anchored from New York for the past four years and moving to head up its editorial board in Washington beginning Jan. 1.
Graham, the first employee hired by Court TV when the network was just developing in 1989, will oversee the editorial board’s lobbying efforts on issues including cameras in the courtroom. He will keep his chief anchor/managing editor title at Court TV and continue to report for Court TV news programs out of D.C. He will occasionally anchor out of New York as well. He has split his time between New York and D.C. for several years.
Graham will not be replaced by a single anchor on Open Court. A rotating team of anchors will likely host the show, according to a network spokesperson. The network expects to announce a new schedule reflecting the anchor changes shortly.
Over his career, Graham has been a practicing attorney, government official, legal writer for The New York Times, law correspondent for CBS News and an anchor for ABC affiliate WKRN Nashville. Court TV averaged 870,000 total viewers in prime during November, down 2 percent from last year.
