Scott was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire in 1951, the eldest of five children. Her late father, Charles was a police sergeant and her mother, Betty (née Bumby), was formerly a journalist from Ryedale, North Yorkshire.

She completed her secondary education at the Laurence Jackson School in Guisborough, North Yorkshire where she was head girl, whilst living in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Cleveland. She then continued her studies at the University of East Anglia, reading English and American Literature.

Initially resisting the temptation to continue a family trait working in journalism Scott succumbed and went to work on the Sunday Post in Dundee, Scotland for 2 years. She then took up the post of Press officer for the Tourist board on the Isle of Bute. She then began broadcasting after being hired by Ted Brocklebank, then Head of News & Current Affairs, now a Tory MSP, as a reporter and presenter with Grampian TV in 1978. She made her television debut on the nightly news programme Grampian Today, presenting from a North Sea oil platform and at the summit of Cairn Gorm. She later became one of the launch team for North Tonight.

Several months after North Tonight began, Scott, at the age of 29, progressed to national television; appearing first as a newsreader on ITV's News at Ten. In 1982 at the outbreak of the Falklands War Scott became the Forces' pin-up girl causing viewing figures to soar. She then went on to launch Breakfast Television in the UK joining the BBC's Breakfast Time programme in January 1983. She presented the show with Frank Bough and Nick Ross. Ironically, Scott had been hired by ITN to replace Anna Ford who had defected to launch ITV's Breakfast Television channel TV-am. Before TV-am began broadcasting in February 1983, Scott had already quit ITN to launch the BBC's rival show. She later presented The Clothes Show, and was a guest host on the chat show, Wogan (named for its regular host Terry Wogan). Scott crossed the Atlantic in 1988 joining the US channel CBS hosting a current affairs programme - West 57th.

Back in the UK she joined Rupert Murdoch's satellite channel Sky, co-anchoring its 1992 election night coverage with Sir David Frost.

Scott has also produced documentaries on royal figures in Europe including A Prince Among Islands, a profile of Prince Charles, a film with King Juan Carlos of Spain (which achieved record viewing figures for a documentary in Spain) and The Return of the King, which involved travelling with King Constantine of Greece after 25 years of exile.

By 1995 in the US she had her own chat show on NBC. By 1997 she was back in the UK signing a contract with Sky reputedly for £1,000,000. She anchored the breakfast programme, later switching to the 5pm news. Latterly she had her own chat show but this was halted after 8 weeks.

In 2003 she moved from Perthshire, Scotland to her native North Yorkshire after buying a 200-acre (0.81 km2) farm near Ampleforth to accommodate her 27 Angora goats. The fleeces are washed, spun and dyed, producing Mohair wool for her farm business, creating socks for the gun makers Purdey, growing into her own company designing and creating socks. Through this venture she has greatly enhanced her role as a Countryside Custodian whilst living in an area designated as an official Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

In October 2006, Scott was chosen to launch the new season's fashion campaign for Country Casuals, now known as CC.

In Spring 2007 Kingfisher Productions hired Scott to co-host Tales from the Countryside. The first series showed Scott's own working farm and her herd of Angoras being shorn through to the eventual production of the socks. A second series was commissioned and shown in Spring 2008 featuring unique rural stories.