Former TV news reporter Andrew Davis is leaving the Town of HHI. Is he returning to WSAV?

Andrew Davis will return to television reporting as co-anchor of WSAV News 3 for their afternoon broadcast on June 10 after less than a year as the Town of Hilton Head Island’s director of marketing and communications, according to a Monday news release.

In addition to co-anchoring the Savannah station’s 4 p.m. broadcast, Davis will also fill a new WSAV role, Lowcountry Bureau Chief. He said WSAV will expand to have two reporters covering the Lowcountry instead of one, and he will be in charge of mentoring those reporters and managing what airs relating to Beaufort, Jasper and Hampton Counties.

“This has nothing to do with the town itself,” Davis said. “This has to do with my feelings. My heart was back in the position that I was in.”

The town hired Davis for the $145,000 role in August 2023 after he spent almost 15 years at WSAV. The position marked Davis’ first public relations job after a 29-year career as a reporter. Davis said that while he was working for the town, people would reach out saying they missed him on television.

“It’s a tough decision,” he said. “But it’s one that I’m happy to make because I think I can reach more people and help a lot of people in the Lowcountry,” he said.

Davis said he doesn’t believe transitioning back into a journalism role is a conflict of interest.

“I’m not sitting here trying to take away anything that I’ve learned and use it against the town in any form,” he said. “I’m going to be doing my job to cover the events of the day, and if something does happen in the future, I certainly will hold the town accountable.”

During his nearly 15 years at WSAV, Davis won multiple awards and was part of several Emmy-nominated newscasts. Netflix, HBO and the CW also featured Davis in their documentaries about the 2023 Alex Murdaugh murder trial and 2019 boat crash that killed Mallory Beach.

Davis will co-anchor with Tina Tyus Shaw, replacing Edward Moody, who co-anchored the 4 p.m. news for over four years. Moody is joining WBTW Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Moody is set to co-anchor the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts with Trish Williford.