A long time voice in broadcasting is now silent.
Hugh Downs, whose smooth, reassuring voice guided viewers through radio and television programs over the course of six decades, died Wednesday at his home in Arizona, according to a statement provided to NBC News by his family. He was 99. The family statement said Downs' passing was not a result of COVID-19.
Downs was best known as a long-running co-host of NBC's Today show, the host of the original daytime version of the game show Concentration, and a co-host of ABC News' 20/20.
Born in 1921 in Ohio, Downs spent part of his post-secondary career at Wayne State University in Detroit. His first radio job was as a staff announcer at a Lima, Ohio station, then at WWJ-AM in Detroit. After serving in the Second World War, Downs moved to WMAQ-AM in Chicago, a flagship of the NBC Radio Network.
Downs began his television career by announcing for several shows out of Chicago, such as Hawkins Falls, the first successful soap opera on NBC Television, and the children's show Kukla, Fran and Ollie. He then moved to NBC in New York as an announcer for The Home Show, then as Jack Paar's sidekick on The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962, where he spent more time on-camera.
His career at NBC soon took off in addition to his role on the Tonight Show. He became a co-host of Today in 1962, later working alongside Barbara Walters until 1971. Downs also hosted the original NBC daytime version of the game show Concentration from 1958 to 1969, when he stepped down to concentrate on his Today duties.
In his later career, he was host of the PBS show Over Easy, which focused on aging, but he was best known for teaming up again with Barbara Walters at ABC News as a host of the long-running newsmagazine 20/20. He was on the latter program from the second episode in 1978 until he retired from television in 1999.
Downs was honoured by the Guinness Book of World Records as having logged the most hours on television with over 15,000, a record that was broken in 2004 by Regis Philbin. Arizona State University's school of human communication is named after Downs.
He is survived by his two children. His wife Ruth, whom he married in 1944, died in 2017.