Good Day L.A.

History

Good Day L.A. debuted on June 18, 1993. At its inception, it was a two-hour newscast that was originally anchored by Antonio Mora and Susan Lichtman. Mark Thompson moved from the station's 10 p.m. newscast to serve as its weather anchor; Dagny Hultgreen served as the entertainment anchor; and Suzanne Dunn was the traffic reporter, reporting from the station's news helicopter Sky 11 (now SkyFox).

The format was unsuccessful, and the show had suffered from frequent anchor turnover. Mora left for ABC News and was replaced by Thompson and later Tony McEwing (who has anchored the early morning Fox 11 Morning News since its 1993 launch). Hultgreen was replaced by Lonnie Lardner; Dunn was replaced by Will Kohlschreiber.

The show was retooled in March 1995 when Steve Edwards was brought in as anchor alongside Jillian Barberie (now Jillian Reynolds) as weather anchor (swapping positions with Thompson, who took over her former post reporting weather on the station's 10 p.m. newscast), and Dorothy Lucey handling the entertainment reports; Rod Bernsen took over the traffic reports from the helicopter, and McEwing reported headlines from the newsroom.

In mid-2012, the show saw its first major lineup change in nearly two decades with the departure of Lucey, whose contract was not renewed in May. Around the same time, Reynolds was offered to work on a freelance basis and began appearing less frequently on the program. Unsatisfied with the demotion, Reynolds chose to leave completely in September of that year. At the same time of Reynolds' departure, frequent guest host Maria Sansone was made a full-time co-host of the program, alongside Edwards. In January 2014, Bay Area reporter Marla Tellez joined the Good Day L.A. show as an anchor. Lisa Breckenridge and Maria Sansone were let go from the show in January 2017.

Good Day Live

In 2001, Good Day L.A. spun off a nationally syndicated program called Good Day Live, which was an hour-long version of the local show with the same hosts; the program, which featured the same format as Good Day L.A. (although with more of an emphasis on entertainment news, interviews and feature stories over news headlines), was distributed by Twentieth Television and was originally launched on the Fox Television Stations, the parent of KTTV which operates Fox's owned-and-operated stations. Jillian Barberie was fired from the show and Dorothy Lucey left the syndicated version in 2004, yet both continued to host the L.A.-based version. They were replaced by Arthel Neville and Debbie Matenopoulos. Good Day Live was cancelled a year later due to low ratings.

Expansion to three hours

Following the cancellation of Good Day Live, KTTV expanded Good Day L.A. to three hours, running until 10 a.m. local time (becoming the first Fox-owned station, and one of the earliest stations not affiliated with the Big Three networks, to expand their morning newscast into the 9 a.m. hour). Also in 2005, Good Day L.A. added a Sunday edition of the program that was hosted by Robb Weller, Nischelle Turner and Elizabeth Espinosa (in July 2006, the Good Day L.A. branding was removed from the Sunday edition and the format was changed to a more straightforward newscast; Turner and Espinosa were reassigned to other news programs, but Weller remained and co-anchored the Sunday morning newscast with Gina Silva until that program was cancelled by the end of the decade).

Notable personalities

Steve Edwards is presently the longest-serving host of the program, having been primary host of Good Day L.A. since 1995.

Anchors

Reporters

Former on-air staff

KTTV morning newscasts

The station's early morning newscast, Fox 11 Morning News, premiered alongside Good Day L.A. in June 1993; it was originally anchored by Diana Koricke and Tony McEwing, with veteran KTTV reporter and former anchor Tony Valdez serving as an occasional fill-in anchor. Koricke left television news in June 1996 and was replaced on the broadcast by Jean Martirez (who joined the station from KCNC-TV in Denver). The show originated as an hour-long newscast beginning at 6 a.m., but was later expanded to 90 minutes, with a 5:30 a.m. start time. In 2004, an additional half-hour was added, expanding the morning newscast to two hours beginning at 5 a.m. (long after many other stations around the country, particularly in markets as large as Los Angeles, expanded their morning newscasts into the 5 a.m. slot). The morning newscast was expanded to 4:30 a.m. in April 2010.

On July 14, 2008, KTTV debuted a half-hour late morning newscast that immediately follows Good Day L.A. at 10:00 a.m. The program is currently anchored by McEwing and Araksya Karapetyan. In December of that year, a half-hour noon broadcast debuted on the station, which was reformatted in September 2011 from a traditional midday newscast to a mix of news and features with Good Day anchors Edwards and Sansone brought in to anchor the broadcast.

Reception and controversy

Critics of Good Day L.A. have praised the show for being "so wonderfully bonkers", particularly in comparison with its competition, including KTLA's morning newscast as well as the national network morning shows seen on ABC, CBS and NBC.

In-fighting has been a problem in the past. Reynolds appeared as a guest on The Howard Stern Show where she blasted co-host Lucey for being "bible-thumpy". Reynolds has also stated there were times when she and Edwards did not get along. On Lucey's last day, Reynolds issued an apology to Lucey as part of her farewell, of which some critics accused of being insincere.

In other media

Clips from Good Day L.A. are frequently shown on the E! comedic television roundup series The Soup. The show features their logo and often showcases interviews or funny moments either in studio or from the field.