After nearly two decades as noon anchor at WWL, Eric Paulsen will be replaced by Thanh Truong.
Paulsen began anchoring the noon show at the New Orleans CBS affiliate in 2001 and will continue as morning news anchor. “I’m going to be working on some special projects, near and dear to my heart, like music and food,” Paulsen told viewers.
Truong, who moves from the 10 p.m. newscast, will be the station’s primary fill-in anchor and will work on special reports.
“Thanh’s knowledge of the area and superb reporting skills make him the ideal candidate for a new brand of reporting that will better serve the audience,” WWL executive news director, Keith Esparros told the New Orleans Advocate.
WWL-TV has long had a stranglehold on the local TV news ratings at noon. For the latest ratings period that ended last November, WWL-TV scored a 9.8 rating, nearly twice as a high as WVUE-TV’s 5.0, according to NOLA.com.
Each ratings point represents 6,240 homes, roughly 1 percent of the TV households in the New Orleans market, the nation’s 50th largest.