CNBC’s Melissa Francis Returns; Swipes at Fill-in Amanda Drury?

Just good-natured fun or are things getting a little nasty at CNBC now that Melissa Francis returned from maternity leave?

This afternoon, Dealbreaker posted an email purportedly from Francis to editor Bess Levin regarding her temporary on-air fill-in Amanda Drury. It read:

Subject: I’m back!

Hope I can fill Mandy’s… shoes!

CNBC brought Drury over from CNBC Asia this spring to be a dayside anchor. Australia native Drury is based out of Sydney and Singapore. Her first assignment for CNBC U.S. was to sit in for Francis on “The Call.”

Larry Kudlow and Trish Regan welcomed Francis back today at the top of the show. She thanked her co-hosts and joked about her time away, saying “What the heck happened? I left at the beginning of May, the market went to hell in a hand basket. I hope everyone is not blaming Australia — I meant Greece. Not Australia. Anyway…”

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