{"id":3159,"date":"2014-04-23T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T14:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=3159"},"modified":"2014-05-22T06:02:08","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T11:02:08","slug":"zoraida-returns-as-nbc-5-morning-anchor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/04\/23\/zoraida-returns-as-nbc-5-morning-anchor\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoraida Sambolin rejoins NBC 5 as morning anchor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zoraida<\/a>

<\/a> Zoraida Sambolin<\/p><\/div>\n

Zoraida Sambolin, who left her job<\/a> as CNN morning news anchor last December to move back home to Chicago, is rejoining NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5.<\/p>\n

Starting May 22, Sambolin will co-anchor \u201cNBC 5 News Today\u201d<\/a> with Stefan Holt from 4:30 to 7 a.m. Monday through Friday. She will replace Daniella Guzman, who\u00a0is moving to KNBC-TV, the NBC-owned station in Los Angeles, as anchor of a revamped \"Today in L.A.\"\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before she joined CNN in New York at the end of 2011, Sambolin co-anchored \u201cNBC 5 News Today\u201d with Rob Elgas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted that Zoraida will be returning to our newsroom,\u201d Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at NBC 5, said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cShe\u2019s a native Chicagoan and knows our city well. I know our viewers will welcome her back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sambolin, 48, had virtually no news experience when she talked her way into a job as a free-lance weekend news anchor at NBC 5 in 2002. (She\u2019d previously hosted such public-affairs shows as \u201cSmall Talk for Parents\u201d and \u201cNuestros Ninos\u201d for noncommercial and Spanish-language stations.) By 2007, she moved up to weekday morning news anchor. CNN came calling four years later.\u00a0\u201cI have to say leaving NBC was one of the toughest decisions I\u2019ve ever made,\u201d she told me at the time. \u201cMy team is my second family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ashleigh<\/a>

Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin<\/p><\/div>\n

She initially joined CNN to host \u201cEarly Start,\u201d a two-hour weekday morning news show with Ashleigh Banfield. But Banfield proved a poor fit for mornings and was moved to middays after six months. John Berman, a former ABC News correspondent, replaced her as Sambolin\u2019s morning partner.<\/p>\n

Sambolin\u2019s life and career changed dramatically last May when she disclosed that she had breast cancer and would undergo a double mastectomy. When she returned to \u201cEarly Start\u201d in August, she said it was with a new perspective. \u201cI have come to realize that in order for me to be happy, my family has to be my first priority,\u201d she wrote on Facebook <\/a>in announcing her decision to leave CNN in December. A mother of two, she is engaged to Kenny Williams, executive vice president of the White Sox.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love my job and the gifted and committed people I've had an opportunity to work with but life is beckoning me back to Chicago. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I entered a dark place . . . not once did I think about not achieving career or material success. Rather, I thought about all the missed moments in life and how I was not ready to sacrifice missing any more. I wanted to live to see my kids grow up. I wanted more soccer games, basketball games, proms, weddings, grandchildren. . . . I am healthy, cancer free and strong but I know a long life is not promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I am moving back to Chicago and I will be on the sidelines cheering on my kids. I will not become a slacker; work is in my future, but so is a great deal of perspective. I will also continue to raise awareness about breast cancer and help raise funds to find a cure. It's an interesting relationship I've had with cancer. I appreciate how it's made me think and grow but it's evil, arbitrary hand has taken too many lives. For as long as I have a voice, I am committed to early detection and finding a cure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stefan<\/a>

Stefan Holt and Daniella Guzman<\/p><\/div>\n

On Tuesday, Sambolin wrote on Facebook: \u201cIt\u2019s been wayyyy too long since I checked in . . . kids are great . . . I'm healthy . . . making new friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guzman joined<\/a> NBC 5 in March 2012 from KPRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Houston, where she was a weekend news anchor and general assignment reporter. Her hiring closely followed the promotion of Holt, son of NBC News anchor Lester Holt, from weekend morning news anchor to weekdays. Elgas shifted to co-anchoring NBC 5's 4:30 p.m. weekday newscast with Marion Brooks.<\/p>\n

Calling Guzman \u201ca key part of our morning news growth,\u201d David Doebler, president and general manager of NBC 5, said in a statement: \u201cWhile we hate to see her go, we are happy that she can take advantage of this promotion within our company.\"<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> Read Zoraida on her comeback: 'It all feels right.'<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zoraida Sambolin, who left her job as CNN morning news anchor last December to move back home to Chicago, is rejoining NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5. Starting May 22, Sambolin will co-anchor \u201cNBC 5 News Today\u201d with Stefan Holt from 4:30 to 7 a.m. Monday through Friday. She will replace Daniella Guzman, who\u00a0is moving to KNBC-TV, the... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3159"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3554,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions\/3554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}