Sylvia Perez joins Fox 32 as weekend morning anchor

Sylvia Perez

Sylvia Perez

Sylvia Perez, a prominent news anchor and reporter for 24 years at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, is returning to Chicago television news as weekend morning anchor for WFLD-Channel 32, the Fox-owned station announced Monday.

Starting October 3, Perez will join Fox 32 as anchor of the Saturday and Sunday editions of “Good Day Chicago” and will deliver special reports during the week for the 9 p.m. newscast. She succeeds Kristen Nicole, who shifted to weekday mornings last month.

“Sylvia brings experience and depth to anchoring and storytelling, and her reports will add a dimension to our already successful 9 p.m. news,” Matt Piacente, vice president and news director of Fox 32, wrote in a memo to staff.

Perez, 54, most recently has headed an independent production company, Sylvia Perez Productions, and hosted “Heavy Hitters,” a video podcast series of interviews with newsworthy personalities. She also appears often on Tribune Media news/talk WGN AM 720 and Cumulus Media news/talk WLS AM 890.

A native of Lawton, Oklahoma, and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma School of Journalism, Perez worked at KPRC, the NBC affiliate in Houston, before joining ABC 7 as weekend news anchor in 1989. She moved up to weekday news anchor in 1992.

In addition to co-anchoring the top-rated 11 a.m. weekday newscast with Linda Yu until its cancellation in 2013, Perez served as ABC 7’s "Healthbeat" reporter covering health and medical investigative stories. (ABC 7 reinstated the 11 a.m. newscast with Judy Hsu and Terrell Brown last June.)

Monday afternoon update: “I’m thrilled that Fox 32 is giving me the opportunity to get back to Chicago viewers, and even more excited to work with news director Matt Piacente and assistant news director Todd Woolman,” Perez wrote on her blog. “They are two people I have the utmost respect for and have had the pleasure of working with in the past. Many people in that newsroom are already friends of mine. They are all professionals and very good at what they do, and I look forward to coming on board and joining the Fox 32 news team.”