Was Melissa Francis the Inspiration for Avery Jessup?

By Chris Ariens 

Last week we wrote about a new character on NBC’s “30 Rock” — Avery Jessup, anchor of the fictitious “Hot Box” on the real CNBC. Now, Page Six reports CNBC anchor Melissa Francis was the inspiration for Jessup, and:

Our source said that Francis herself, who hosts morning show “The Call,” pitched the idea to a “30 Rock” producer. “Francis was hoping to be asked to play the character herself, but they ended up going with [actress Elizabeth] Banks,” our source says.

And there’s more. Francis actually is, or at least was, an actress…

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That’s Melissa Francis when she played Cassandra Cooper Ingalls on NBC’s “Little House on the Prairie” for two seasons during the early 1980s. Francis actually started acting when she was 6 months old, in a Johnson & Johnson shampoo commercial.

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