Two News Vets Departing Their Networks

Elizabeth Vargas

Elizabeth Vargas is leaving ABC News.

Vargas, who has spent the last 21 years at ABC, will depart in the spring, at the conclusion of the 40th season of 20/20. Vargas has co-hosted the prime time newsmagazine for the last 14 years.

“I am sorry only to have to share this news with you as we celebrate the holidays,” Vargas wrote in a note to staff, obtained by TVNewser. “I had hoped to make this announcement after the first of the year.”

ABC News president James Goldston, who calls Vargas “one of the best broadcasters in our business,” said she is leaving “to pursue new ventures.”

James Rosen

Vargas, 55, joined ABC News in 1996 after 3 years at NBC News. Before that Vargas was a reporter/anchor at WBBM in Chicago. She got her start in TV at KOMU TV at her alma mater, the University of Missouri.

And James Rosen, a stalwart of Fox News Channel’s Washington D.C. bureau, is leaving the network, according to TVNewser.

“James Rosen is exiting the company at the end of the year,” a Fox News spokesperson confirms, without providing further detail.

Rosen, 49, has been with Fox News since 1999, 3 years after the channel launched.

As the network’s Chief Washington Correspondent, he often reported for Special Report, but was seen throughout FNC’s programming day, most recently just yesterday.