ELLERBEE MAY JOIN WALTERS AT ABC NEWS

ABC News, which has laid off employees as part of a company-wide belt-tightening, may soon hire a new employee ---- former NBC correspondent Linda Ellerbee.

The network already has agreed on a new contract with a current employee who also once worked for NBC News--Barbara Walters. ABC said Tuesday that she has accepted a five-year contract calling for a pay hike. The amount of the raise was not disclosed.

Sources said the new pact will earn Walters more than $1.5 million annually. She became one of network TV’s first millionaire anchors 10 years ago when she left NBC’s “Today Show” to join ABC News to do interview specials and co-anchor “World News Tonight.”

Walters, whose “World News Tonight” stint didn’t work out, continues to do big-name interview specials and also co-anchors ABC’s “20/20” news-magazine series.

That she will be earning more money was made clear last June, when ABC News president Roone Arledge told a news conference that Walters would be offered a raise, not a pay cut as had been rumored. The rumor apparently had its origins in the across-the-board belt-tightening ordered by Capital Cities Communications, ABC’s cost-conscious new owners, after Cap Cities took over ABC in January.

An estimated 600 ABC Inc. employees were pink-slipped in a process that began shortly before the takeover became official and continued after Cap Cities took charge. Nearly 100 ABC News staffers, none of them correspondents, were among those laid off.

Ellerbee was reported close to becoming ABC’s newest employee on Tuesday. The correspondent, who left NBC News late last month after nearly 11 years there, apparently turned down a bid by CBS to sign her as co-anchor of the soon-to-be-revamped-again “CBS Morning News.”

A CBS News spokeswoman said that network officials had talked with Ellerbee about joining CBS, but “we haven’t heard anything” more about that from her agent. A CBS source said it appeared highly unlikely that Ellerbee would be joining the network.

ABC News officials declined to comment on its contract talks with the Texas-born reporter and essayist. But sources close to the talks said there was a strong possibility that she would be signed, possibly by next week, to co-anchor ABC’s new “Our World” historical series.

That prime-time program is scheduled to premiere on Sept. 25 opposite NBC’s powerhouse “The Cosby Show.”

In addition, sources said, Ellerbee may also do commentary for ABC Radio, and bring her humorous “T.G.I.F.” feature segment--the initials stand for “Thank God It’s Friday”--to ABC’s “Good Morning America.” She previously did that segment for NBC’s “Today Show.”

There also is a remote possibility that she may host a late-night program once or twice a week after ABC’s “Nightline,” one source said.

(Talk-show star Dick Cavett and New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin also are said to be under consideration as hosts of their own post-”Nightline” ABC programs on other nights of the week.)

Ellerbee, whose critically praised but low-rated “NBC News Overnight” was canceled by NBC in December, 1983, after 18 months on the air, was not available for comment. Her New York agent, Ralph Mann, was reported on vacation and not available for comment either.

During his June press conference, Arledge denied that ABC was negotiating with Ellerbee to anchor “Our World.” He was technically correct. ABC had made overtures to her, but could not actually negotiate with her because she still was under contract to NBC News at the time.

She later rejected her last NBC contract offer. But that network still has until Tuesday to match any other network’s offers. It is doubtful that NBC will attempt that, a source at the network said.

Ellerbee has said that during her absence from the air waves she will be working on a movie script for producer Bernie Brillstein and actress Marsha Mason. In May, the two took an option for movie rights to Ellerbee’s recently published first book, “And So It Goes,” a light-hearted account of her experiences in the wacky world of television news. The correspondent, who was hired to write the script, disclosed the deal during a guest appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show.”