CBS has announced that Betty Nguyen is leaving CNN and joining the network as a full-time CBS News Correspondent as of March 11th. Nguyen will anchor “CBS Morning News” and report for “The Early Show.”
Nguyen joined CNN in 2004 and is an anchor for the weekend editions of “CNN Newsroom.” “She has a great on-air presence and brings a tremendous amount of hard news reporting and anchoring experience to CBS News,” said CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus in a release.
Prior to her time at CNN, Nguyen started her career as an anchor at two CBS affiliates in Texas, first at KWTX in Waco, then KTVT in Dallas. Full announcement after the jump.
More: TVNewser has an email that current “CBS Morning News” anchor Michelle Gielan sent to colleagues early today in which she announces that she’s leaving CBS News in the next few months.
BETTY NGUYEN JOINS CBS NEWS
Betty Nguyen has been named a CBS News Correspondent, it was announced today by Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports. In her new role, Nguyen also will anchor the CBS MORNING NEWS, report regularly for THE EARLY SHOW and contribute to the Division’s other broadcasts and platforms. The appointment is effective March 11.
“We’re delighted that Betty is joining our talented on-air team,” said McManus. “She has a great on-air presence and brings a tremendous amount of hard news reporting and anchoring experience to CBS News.”
Nguyen served as anchor of the weekend morning edition of "CNN Newsroom" since 2004. During this time, she anchored the network’s coverage of major news events, including the recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti, Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to the United States in 2008, the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005 and the London bombing attacks in July 2005. Nguyen also anchored portions of CNN’s coverage of the tsunami disaster in South Asia, the Iraqi elections in January 2005 and the June 2004 handover of sovereignty to Iraq.
Nguyen traveled to Constitución, Mexico, in 2009 to cover the damage caused by Hurricane Jimena. In 2008, she reported from Houston and Galveston, Texas, during Hurricane Ike. Also that year, she went undercover in Myanmar for a series of exclusive reports that exposed a lack of aid two months after Cyclone Nargis killed more than 140,000 people. Nguyen traveled to Africa in 2007 to cover the presidential elections in Sierra Leone, the political and economic crises in Zimbabwe and apartheid-era prosecutions in South Africa.
In September 2005, Nguyen reported and anchored from the Houston Astrodome, where thousands sought shelter after Hurricane Katrina. Later that month, she went on assignment in her birth country of Vietnam to cover the deadly flooding caused by annual monsoons.
Before joining CNN, Nguyen was an anchor at KTVT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Dallas (1998-2004), where she covered numerous breaking news events, including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Nguyen began her career as a morning anchor and reporter at KWTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Waco, Texas (1996-98).
In 2003, she won a regional Emmy Award for "Outstanding Noon Newscast," and received an Associated Press Award in 1998 for breaking news coverage. In 2007, the Smithsonian Institute recognized her as the first Vietnamese-American to anchor a national television news broadcast in the United States.
Nguyen graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism.