New Day, and by extension CNN, said goodbye to original co-host Michaela Pereira on Friday. Pereira will begin anchoring a new late morning news program on sister network HLN in the coming months.
New Day aired a compilation of moments from Pereira’s nearly three years at CNN. Moments include finding members of her birth family as part of CNN’s Roots program. There were also goodbyes from co-hosts Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, former co-host John Berman, and Christine Romans. Her parents also appeared via webcam.
News team members from Pereira’s former channel, KTLA5, appeared to talk to her and she got a welcome from Robin Meade, who hosts the morning program on HLN.
Meade described the change as “You’ve been having thanksgiving dinner with those cousins over there, all you’re doing is coming to your cousins at HLN to have Thanksgiving with us.”
Pereira said, “This is the best thing ever.” “Thank you for making the last three years a dream. I’ll see you guys on the other side.”
Pereira and Cuomo have been with New Day since it launched in June 2013. She was originally a news anchor for the program, but was eventually promoted to co-anchor.
Pereira moved to New York for the job, leaving her West Coast home. She will be anchoring the new program out of CNN’s Los Angeles bureau.