Photo Credit: Edward M. Pio Roda/CNN
CNN’s Michaela Pereira will be jumping to sister network HLN later this year to anchor a late morning news show. Pereira will also be returning to Los Angeles, her hometown, to anchor the three-hour program. Pereira has been based in New York since 2013 to work on New Day. Pereira previously worked for KTLA in Los Angeles, co-anchoring their morning news program.
Pereira joined CNN in 2013 to serve as the news anchor on New Day. She was part of the original New Day team which included Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Pereira. Cuomo will now be the only original New Day anchor. Pereira was also named a co-host of @ThisHour with John Berman. In 2015, Pereira was promoted to be a main anchor on New Day and Bolduan went to @ThisHour.
Even as Pereira was on New Day, she frequently took time off and was oftentimes found on the West Coast. CNN chose Pereira to co-host their Oscars coverage earlier this year.
There will be rotating anchors on New Day until a replacement is named.
Pereira told the Los Angeles Times’s Stephen Battaglio, who broke the story, that she had advocated for the relocation. She also told Battaglio, “It’s time for me to go home and be close to my family and my community and my loved ones. I’m excited about going back and getting to do what I love, which is a morning news show.”
Pereira’s move comes as HLN is undergoing a brand transformation back towards its CNN roots. HLN had recently tried to position itself as the social media cable news network, but that transformation was largely unsuccessful. After HLN chief Albie Heicht left the network, CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker said in a staff memo that HLN would move closer to CNN and use its sister network’s library of nonfiction programming. Battaglio says that Pereira’s show will be modeled after HLN’s Morning Express, the signature program on the network.