OPINION

UPDATE: ANCHORS AWAY

LA's new FOX Anchor
Carlos Amezcua pulls into port!

(Septemper 17th, 2007 6:20PM PST)

BY ERS NEWS

ERSNews has learned that Carlos Amezuca will start anchoring the 10pm news tonight (Monday 9/17) on Fox/KTTV in Los Angeles. ERSNews originally broke the story when Carlos surprised KTLA by jumping ship to join KTTV here in Los Angeles. He was originally scheduled to start on the air at KTTV in early October. John Beard, the former lead anchor on the Fox affiliate has not been seen on the air since the Amezuca announcement. The Fox station has been running Carols Amezuca with Christine Devine, Beard's former co-anchor, promos for a number of days. So far the jury is out on where KNBC's Anna Garcia fits into this.

Over at Carlos's former home, KTLA also in Los Angeles, tonight's anchor du jour team is none other than Kurt "The Cyber Guy," Knutsson and Leila Feinstein. That's some replacement for Hal Fishman's 47 years of experience. Apparently the folks at Tribune think that rotating anchors is the answer to experience. That tactic was abandoned by ABC News after Elizabeth Vargas and others drove the ratings on World News to below Katie Couric on CBS. ABC settled for the old experienced guy (Charlie Gibson) and World News is now number one in the ratings.

 

OPINION

ANCHORS AWAY - FULL STEAM AHEAD!

DOING THE LA FREEWAY SHUFFLE

 

(August 8th, 2007 11:00AM PST)

BY ERS NEWS

ERS News has learned Anna Garcia, current anchor and sometime "investigative reporter" at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles has been seen having lunch recently with Jose Rios (News Director) and his boss Kevin Hale of local LA-FOX affiliate KTTV. According to knowledgeable sources Garcia has been working at KNBC for several months without a contract. Highly placed sources have also told ERS News that Garcia resigned from the station this week. Others say she is still working at the station. Although she has one foot out the door, she has yet to officially resign publicly.

Could Garcia be heading to KTTV to make for an all Hispanic anchor duo working with Carlos?

Who's Carlos you ask? Carlos Amezuca, KTLA Channel 5 morning anchor who resigned earlier this week to join the 10 pm news at KTTV. Amezuca caught the station suits at KTLA by surprise, according to sources. When he resigned, Vinnie Malcolm the General Manager, was on vacation and Carlos or his agent Giselle Fernandez (the same Giselle who co-anchored the KTLA Morning Show with Carlos in years past) called John Hensley the executive producer of the Morning show to deliver the bad news. Carlos was also on vacation at the time with his family in Hawaii. When one KTLA insider checked Carlos' office it had been cleaned out before he went on vacation. Sources at Fox were happy that they surprised KTLA. In fact, on at least one occasion, unknown to KTLA suits, Carlos flew to New York to meet with the Fox station people. KTLA's anchor bench is looking pretty thin now. They are using Emmett Miller (formerly of The Enterprise Report's personal favorite hard hitting news program "Strange Universe" and Lelia Feinstein to anchor the KTLA news at 10. They've sure come a long way in a short time since the recent death of iconic LA newsman Hal Fishman late last month.

Meanwhile over at Fox station KTTV Channel 11, making way for new anchor Amezuca, soon-to-be former anchor John Beard has been telling anyone who would listen over the last year that he planning to retire. Don't believe it, ERS News has learned that Fox officials kicked him to the curb. Beard is already looking for new employment opportunities here in Los Angeles we are told. Sources familiar with the situation tell us Beard was shown the door because "he was no longer engaged" in the 10p newscast. The move, they hope will have Carlos breathing some new life into the local Fox newscast.