Tribune’s WPIX has revamped its morning show lineup. The station said the move was meant to help it invest more resources elsewhere.
A station spokesperson told TVSpy the 4:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. hour has been dropped.
And despite reports of Marysol Castro and Dan Mannarino leaving the New York CW affiliate, the station said it has moved the two former anchors to reporting in the mornings with Sukanya Krishnan and Kori Chambers anchoring the entire 5:00 to 9:00 a.m. show instead of just the 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.
In addition to the main anchor changes and new traffic reporter Kaitlin Monte, meteorologist Rachel Frank joins from 5:00 to 6:00 a.m. while Linda Church remains on the 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. show
A Tribune spokesperson told TVSpy, “Moving PIX11 Morning News’ start time from 4:00 am to 5:00 am allows the station the flexibility to invest more resources into the key morning hours and positions PIX11 to expand news coverage in other dayparts later this year.”
Media blogs were speculating that Castro was out at the station and Mannarino was not far behind after Castro shook Mannarino’s hand at the end of Thursday’s show and said, “Hey, dude. It was nice knowing you.”