FORMER “Dateline” correspondent Len Cannon has bolted NBC and is joining Ch. 5.

Cannon will co-anchor Ch. 5’s 10 p.m. weekend newscast with Linda Schmidt and will also be a special projects reporter.

Harry Martin, who had been co-anchoring weekends, will stay with Ch. 5. Martin also reports during the week for the station’s top-rated 10 p.m. newscast.

Schmidt has been co-anchoring weekends since former Ch. 5 anchor/reporter Cynthia Santana left for a job in Chicago.

Cannon, 45, had been a New York-based correspondent for “Dateline” since 1994. He sent an e-mail to co-workers late Thursday night announcing his departure.

The hiring of Cannon could be a prelude for bigger changes at Ch. 5, which is considering starting a 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscast in the near future.

That means that anchors and reporters could be re-aligned in a variety of different lineups.

Several Ch. 5 anchors and reporters, including Mike Gilliam and Bob O’Brien, have already moved over to co-owned Ch. 9 in Secaucus, while Dick Brennan moved from Ch. 9 to Ch. 5.

Ch. 5 and Ch. 9 are owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post.