The ''KTLA 5 Morning News'' is an American

morning television Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television show, television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically br ...

news program News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either video production, produced local programming, ...

airing on

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...

(channel 5), a CW- affiliated

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

owned by the

Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...

. The program broadcasts each weekday morning from 4 am to 12 pm

Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

. The 4-7 am portion is a general news/traffic/weather format; the 7 am-12 pm portion also features news, traffic, and weather but emphasizes entertainment and other light-hearted stories (incorporating celebrity interviews–both in-studio and occasionally via satellite – as well as features such as fashion and food segments). Weekend editions of the program also air on Saturday and Sunday from 6-11 am The 7-10 am portion of the program was simulcast on its

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

KSWB-TV KSWB-TV (channel 69) is a television station in San Diego, California, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on Engineer Road in the city's Kearny Mesa section, and its tran ...

(channel 69, also owned by

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

and at the time the simulcast began, was an affiliate of

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

) from March 7, 2005, to July 31, 2008 (under the name ''The WB Morning Show'', and then to ''The CW Morning Show'' upon becoming a CW affiliate); KSWB later relaunched an in-house news department on August 1, 2008, after switching its affiliation from

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

and debuted its own locally produced morning newscast on the date of the affiliation switch.

History

The program began on July 8, 1991 as ''The KTLA Morning News'', anchored by

Carlos Amezcua Carlos Amezcua is a journalist best known for his sixteen years as the original co-anchor for the ''KTLA Morning News'', with Barbara Beck as his co-anchor, Mark Kriski handling weather and Sam Rubin reporting on the entertainment industry. Airin ...

and Barbara Beck, with weathercaster Mark Kriski, and Eric Spillman and Michele Ruiz reporting from remote locations. It was created under the direction of then-general manager Steve Bell and produced by Raymond J. Brune. Originally a two-hour program airing from 7-9 am, the show's emphasis was mostly on news, with very little on lighter features. With the emphasis on hard news, the show received poor ratings and some negative reviews. Near the end of 1991, Joel Tator, a new executive producer, had been brought in to help revive the show by giving the show a more relaxed atmosphere by spreading out newspapers on the desk. The anchors, feeling that the show was in its final weeks, also relaxed, and they started joking around. The critical moment for the ''Morning News'' came in February 1992, when a series of rain storms hit the Southland, causing severe flooding in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

. At that time, the only other news programs on in the morning were the national news shows on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

(''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

''),

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

(''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'') and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

(''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...

''), which were all broadcast on a three-hour tape delay in the Pacific Time Zone, with limited live coverage during the local news segments. Filling a need, KTLA set aside its normal programming and provided extensive coverage of the flooding. That brought in large numbers of Southland viewers; once the flood crisis ended, the viewers stayed with the show. And as a result, ratings improved dramatically. Another critical moment for the ''Morning News'' occurred on January 17, 1994, when the

Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately ...

rocked the area, causing widespread damage, collapsing freeways, sparked power outages, ruptured water and gas lines, prompted the stoppage of television and film production, and altered public events and flight schedules due to precaution closures in Hollywood and

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...

. The quake almost trashed the KTLA newsroom when reporters Eric Spillman, Larry McCormick, Stan Chambers and Michele Ruiz were producing special reports throughout the morning. With the new relaxed atmosphere and a need to provide live, local news when the other stations could not, the show survived. The program continued to succeed even as the newscast saw new competition with the debut of ''

Good Day L.A. ''Good Day L.A.'' is an American morning television news and entertainment program airing on KTTV (channel 11), a Fox owned-and-operated television station in Los Angeles, California, owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corpo ...

'' on Fox-owned

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outle ...

(channel 11) in July 1993. Around 1998, Michele Ruiz left for NBC-owned KNBC (channel 4) and Jim Newman also left for ABC-owned KABC (channel 7). On May 2, 2001, Barbara Beck resigned from KTLA with

Giselle Fernandez ''Giselle'' (; ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (, ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet (" ballet-pantomime") in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, ...

later becoming co-anchor. In 2003, Fernandez left and was replaced by

Michaela Pereira Michaela Pereira (born August 26, 1970) is a Canadian television personality best known as being a former anchor for KTLA in Los Angeles and for the KTTV FOX11 Los Angeles morning show, ''Good Day LA''. She announced on March 28, 2013, that she ...

. In September 2007, Carlos Amezcua left KTLA for

to replace

John Beard John Beard may refer to: * John Beard (artist) (born 1943), Welsh artist and painter * John Beard (colonial administrator) (died 1685), Chief Agent and Governor of Bengal * John Beard (embryologist) (1858–1924), Scottish embryologist and anatomi ...

as anchor on that station's 10 pm newscast. In May 2013, Pereira left KTLA, to become an anchor for

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

's morning news program '' New Day''. In September 2006, KTLA changed the subtitles of each portion of the morning newscast. The 5 am hour was renamed ''KTLA Morning News First Edition'', the 6 am hour was retitled ''KTLA Morning News Early Edition'', and the 7-10 am portion was renamed the ''KTLA Morning Show''. The newscasts underwent another retitling on February 4, 2008, to bring the entire program back under the ''KTLA Morning News'' brand, with the hour of the particular portion of the program included in the title for the 5, 6, and 9 am hours. On February 2, 2012, the ''KTLA Morning News'' was expanded by an extra hour, starting at 4 am In April 2011, KTLA added a weekend morning extension of the newscast, airing on Saturdays initially from 6-7 am – later expanding to 5-7 am in September 2012 (airing in the early time slot due to The CW's children's program block) – and on Sundays from 6-9 am; On May 9, 2014, the Saturday morning newscast was expanded to three hours and moved to 6:00 to 9:00 am, in a uniform timeslot as the Sunday morning newscast and following the death of Chris Burrous, is currently anchored by Lynette Romero with Liberte Chan covering weather, who also work during the week in other assignments. The addition made KTLA the fourth Tribune-owned station to carry a weekend morning newscast (the others being fellow CW affiliate

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...

in Chicago – which twice ran weekend morning newscasts, first from 1992 to 1998 (the Saturday edition of that program having only remained by the time of its cancellation) and again since 2010, and Fox affiliates

WXIN WXIN (channel 59) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Bloomington-licensed CBS affiliate WTTV, channel 4 (and its Kokomo-licensed s ...

in Indianapolis and

WTIC-TV WTIC-TV (channel 61) is a television station in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, serving the Hartford–New Haven market as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Waterbury-licensed CW affiliate WCCT-TV ...

in Hartford). KTLA offers midday news from 12 noon to 2 pm (Pacific Time) as part of the extended morning local newscast, the evening news from 6 to 7 pm, and late night news from 10 to 11:35 pm (Monday through Friday). On the morning of 14 September 2022, Sam Rubin announced on the air that Lynette Romero had left her anchor position with KTLA. On Saturday September 17, Mark Mester apologized on air to both viewers and Romero for this, after which he was suspended by the station.

Personalities

Weatherman Mark Kriski and reporter Eric Spillman are the only remaining personalities currently appearing on the program who have been with the ''KTLA Morning News'' since its 1991 debut. Entertainment reporter

Sam Rubin Sam Rubin (born 1960) is an American journalist who serves as the entertainment reporter for the ''KTLA Morning News'' and as a correspondent for Reelz production ''Hollywood Dailies''. He hosts ''Live From the Academy Awards'' and the celebrit ...

came on board approximately six months later and remains to this day.

Current on-air staff

* Chris Schauble – 4-7 am anchor * Megan Henderson – 4-7 am anchor *

– entertainment reporter * Mark Kriski – 7-11 am weather anchor * Frank Buckley – 7-11 am anchor *

Jessica Holmes Jessica Holmes (born August 29, 1973) is a Canadian comedian and actress. She is best known for her work with the '' Royal Canadian Air Farce'', which she joined in 2003, after starring in her own show, ''The Holmes Show'' in 2002. She is marri ...

– 7-11 am anchor * Eric Spillman – field reporter *

Gayle Anderson Gayle Anderson is a reporter for ''KTLA Morning News.'' Starting with KTLA-TV in 1993, she has won three regional Emmys: * 1993, ''Best Live Coverage'' of the Malibu Fires. * 1994, ''Best Live Coverage'' of the Northridge earthquake. * 1994, ...

– feature field reporter * Kaj Goldberg - 11 am-12 pm weather anchor * Kacey Montoya - 11 am-12 pm weather anchor *

Lu Parker Frances Louise Parker (born April 16, 1968) is an American journalist, Miss USA 1994 winner, animal rights advocate, and motivational speaker. Early life Born in Anderson, South Carolina, Parker attended the College of Charleston, where she wa ...

– 11am-12 pm anchor * Glen Walker – 11 am-12 pm anchor * Henry Dicarlo - 4 am-7 am weather anchor * Ginger Chan - 4 am-10 am traffic anchor

Notable former staff

– original anchor (moved to

and then served as co-anchor at

KUSI KUSI-TV (channel 51) is an independent television station in San Diego, California, United States. It is the sole property of locally based McKinnon Broadcasting Company. KUSI-TV's studios are located on Viewridge Avenue (near I-15) in the Ke ...

in San Diego, California.) *

Asha Blake Asha Blake is a five-time Emmy Award-winning television news journalist. Her US-based career has spanned anchoring ABC and NBC network newscasts, daytime- and entertainment-based talk shows, and local news anchoring at flagship news stations KNBC ...

* Chris Burrous (deceased) *

Cher Calvin Cher Calvin (born August 1, 1974) is a news presenter for KTLA television in Los Angeles. Biography Born Cherlynn Calvin on August 1, 1974, in New York City, she is the daughter of the former Filipino actor Roger Calvin. She graduated from the ...

(now 6 pm and 10 pm weeknight anchor at KTLA) *

Dayna Devon Dayna Devon (born March 20, 1965) is an American journalist. Biography Devon is a native of San Antonio, Texas, and a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio. She began her broadcast journalism career as the weekend anchor at KTSA-AM ...

* Yomary Cruz –now voice actor of Sheila in '' Red vs. Blue'' *

Giselle Fernández Giselle Fernández (born May 15, 1961) is an American television journalist and anchor for Spectrum News 1. Her appearances on network television include reporting and guest anchoring for ''CBS Early Show'', ''CBS Evening News'', ''Today'', and ...

- Now an anchor with Spectrum News 1: Southern California. *

Roger Lodge Roger Lodge (born March 12, 1960) is an American TV game show host, game-show and sports-radio host and actor. He is known for hosting the syndicated dating show ''Blind Date (US TV series), Blind Date''. Lodge's acting credits include appearance ...

– "The Sports Lodge" sports talk contributor (2010-2012) * Mark Mester *

– now with

* Christina Pascucci - now with

* Lynette Romero – former 6 am-11 am weekend anchor and weekday reporter, now with KNBC * Michele Ruiz – now President and CEO of Ruiz Strategies, and formerly founder and CEO of Saber Hacer, a bilingual “how-to” site *

Sharon Tay Sharon Tay (born October 15, 1966) is an American journalist and former host of two programs on the MSNBC network and formerly a news reporter for KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV in Los Angeles before being laid off in 2020 after 13 years with the networks.

– now Real Estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway in Los Angeles *

Jennifer York Jennifer Jean York (born August 30, 1962) is a studio traffic reporter with KNX news radio in Los Angeles. Education York graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Communications. Early career York worked as a talent ...

– Multiple Emmy award-winning aerial traffic reporter

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ktla Morning News Local news programming in the United States 1991 American television series debuts

History

Personalities

Current on-air staff

Notable former staff

See also

References