Devin Scillian, longtime anchor on WDIV-TV in Detroit, will retire in December

Devin Scillian has three novels in various stages of incompletion on his laptop. Give him a guitar and a few free hours, and some random thoughts and notes might become a new song.

Scillian, the evening anchor on WDIV-TV (Channel 4) for 28 years, announced his retirement during Tuesday's 6 p.m. newscast. A bridge from an era of star anchors like Bill Bonds and from old media to new, he'll sign off Dec. 13 — and after that, the stories he tells will all be his own.

"Some news now tonight of a more personal nature," he told viewers. "I’ve decided it’s time to move on to the next chapter of what’s been a most enjoyable and gratifying book.”

Referring to himself and his wife, Corey, he continued, they arrived in 1995 and "thought we would have a cup of coffee and then move on. Well, the waitress kept refilling our cups.”

Two Kansans, he said, “feel very much like Michiganders today.”

Scillian's decision was influenced by the departures of four long-term teammates in July, he told the Free Press, but was not tied to them.

Awaiting kickoff Sunday, wearing a Detroit Lions GRIT baseball cap in the Grosse Pointe Park house he and Corey have no plans to leave, Scillian said he was offered a new contract to stay through 2027.

But he was also offered a bit of wisdom by former colleague Tom Sorrells , a WDIV meteorologist who moved on to Florida and remains a close friend.

"It's later than you think," Sorrells said, and approaching his 62nd birthday, Scillian decided it was time to focus on his many other interests, poke around a few fresh ones like acting and voice work, and keep the same schedule as Corey for the first time since 1988.

The decision had been made, Scillian said, before his father, retired U.S. Army Col. Billie Scillian , died last month at 88. But the reminder of mortality and unmet aspirations reinforced it.

He'll stay through the election and one last America's Thanksgiving Parade, and then he'll take on a spousal challenge to get through his mornings without reading four newspapers.

"When that group left in the middle of summer," Scillian said — sports anchor Bernie Smilovitz and reporters Paula Tutman, Mara McDonald and Rod Meloni, along with 16 behind-the-scenes colleagues — "every one of us went through a little inventory of where you are in life."

"Somehow," he decided, "it felt like the right time."

Scillian came to Detroit in 1995 from Oklahoma City. He'd signed his contract with WDIV a month before the bombing there that left a federal building in ruins and 168 people dead, and he was reluctant to leave in a time of crisis.

But he did, eight weeks after the explosion, and Detroit quickly felt like home.

"We thought we were coming here for three to five years," he said. By the time a network sent feelers and a New York station made an offer, though, the Scillians' two older kids loved their schools and the twins were out of diapers, and the big city couldn't compete with fall colors and a 20-minute commute to work.

A natural progression

It's startling, Scillian said, to realize he's about the same age that white-haired eminence Mort Crim was when Crim retired and Scillian slid into the seat next to Carmen Harlan .

Bonds was hosting a late-night talk show on WJBK-TV (Channel 2) when he arrived, and Rich Fisher was the anchor there. They've both died, and local news luminaries like Harlan, Huel Perkins and Monica Gayle have left the pressures and late nights behind.

"They were all titans to me," Scillian said, and co-anchors Harlan, Ruth Spencer, Karen Drew and Kimberly Gill have been "unbelievable partners."

"I am the luckiest guy on the planet," he said.

As for whom fortune will bless next at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. — and who will help carry the weight of maintaining ratings leads in all three time slots — "we're not making that announcement Tuesday," said WDIV general manager Bob Ellis. "We have a ton of talented journalists here, all of whom will play a role in continuing the legacy of our station and the work Devin has done."

Ellis was pilloried shortly after his arrival when longtime meteorologist Andrew Humphrey left the station in mid-2022, and online rumblings that he was cleaning house grew testier at news of the buyouts.

According to co-workers at the time, however, Humphrey, now on the air in Memphis, had been pushing for a new role and he and management couldn't come to an agreement on the hours. The buyouts, Ellis said, were offered at all seven stations owned by Graham Media Group.

"It’s the natural progression of people in their careers," he said. "All businesses go through it. It's just that ours is very public, and when your beloved anchor retires, it's a much bigger deal."

Staying busy — and occasionally useful

Scillian is finishing a five-year contract that ends with the new year.

Despite long hours and periodic long trips, including the recent Paris Olympics and nine others, he has always managed to stay busy and intrigued away from work. He plays guitar and sings in a country band, Arizona Son, and he has written more than 20 worthy children's books .

A theater major at the University of Kansas before he switched to journalism, he has appeared in three Eminem videos and several movies, including "Scream 4," playing a reporter or anchor: "Everyone needs a news guy to move the plot along."

Real life kept him from a meatier part in a recent movie filming in Virginia, though, and he hasn't yet found time to promote his latest book, " Memoirs of a Dog ," released while he was in France. Arizona Son has passed up attractive gigs because he's busy elsewhere, and a voice-over role in Jeff Daniels' latest play at the Purple Rose Theatre was so much fun to record that he has put together a demo tape of startlingly convincing dialects and inflections.

Corey also has a job for him, though it's one he has shown promise at before.

As a sanity break when their 28-year-old twins were still tiny, she began working in clay. Now she's an accomplished sculptor, with a studio in the basement and a bronze bust of her husband in the living room.

Everything involved in her art is heavy. Fortunately, she said, "He's very good at lugging."

The value of information

Scillian will also be stepping away from "Flashpoint," the 10 a.m. Sunday community affairs program he created 26 years ago.

He leaves it with pride in what he helped build, and satisfaction that he never had an election denier on his panel.

"A lie," he said, "is not a side. I do not owe a lie any time with a microphone."

He has always tried to stay neutral, he said — "A really aggressive Switzerland." But he worries increasingly about the state of journalism and the narrow focus of its audience.

"In journalism school, we were told to go out and find things that are important, and make them interesting," he said. "Now, too often, it's about finding things that are interesting and making them important."

Decades ago, he noted, there was an order to news gathering. Radio might be first on a scene to report a story. TV would follow as soon as it could commandeer a camera. Newspapers would have more time to provide depth, and then a magazine might weigh in with a broad overview.

"They worked beautifully together in helping people stay informed," he said. "Now we're all on the same platform. The Free Press is winning Emmys ."

Speed often sweeps aside nuance, he said, and it becomes dangerously easy to only consume points of view you agree with.

"I've been to a lot of places that don't have access to good information," he warned, "and they are not places you want to be."

But there's also hope, and splendor, and destinations he and Corey want to explore. She has never been to Asia. They've heard intriguing things about Croatia and Norway, and they've promised themselves a monthly winter getaway to somewhere warm.

Then they'll come home, to the place they were only going to pass through, where WDIV's Drew and WXYZ's Carolyn Clifford and WJBK's Jay Towers are the new endurance champions on anchor desks.

"It's been a great run," Scillian said, and as the end of it comes near, he's secure in what he's done and exactly where he belongs.

Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@freepress.com.

This story was updated to add a video.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Devin Scillian, longtime anchor on WDIV-TV in Detroit, will retire in December