Bill Ritter

Bill Ritter started at Eyewitness News in 1998, anchoring weekends while working full time Monday through Friday for ABC News and “20/20” as a correspondent.  In 1999, he began anchoring the 11 p.m. newscast and then added the 6 p.m. newscast in 2001.  Ritter stepped away from anchoring in June 2026 following a diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer’s.  He will continue to cover special projects for Eyewitness News, with a focus on Alzheimer’s and related conditions.

Ritter has reported major events since joining ABC as founding co-host of “Good Morning America Sunday” in 1993.

Originally from Los Angeles, he reported on both the Rodney King trial and the subsequent riots in the city for the Fox Television Network early in his career.  Between August 1991 and February 1992, Ritter worked as a reporter for Fox Network’s nationally syndicated show “Entertainment Daily Journal.”  From February 1990 to August 1991, he was an investigative reporter at KTTV-TV (Fox Television) in Los Angeles, where he also anchored coverage of the Gulf War.  He began his television career as a business and investigative reporter for KNSD-TV (an NBC affiliate) in San Diego from February 1987 to January 1990.  Before working in television, Ritter was a reporter and business editor for the San Diego County edition of the Los Angeles Times and worked as a reporter and editor at the San Diego Business Journal.

Ritter received the NYSBA Excellence in Broadcasting Award for “Operation 7: Save a Life,” which promoted fire safety.  He was a board member and chairman of Crash, Inc., a San Diego drug prevention nonprofit, and served on the SDSU Business School Advisory Board from 1984 to 1985.

Ritter earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from The New School in Manhattan.  He graduated in May 2016, 44 years after initially being expelled from San Diego State University for leading an anti-war protest.