A Fox News star is born in Anna Davlantes


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Posted by chicagomedia.org on November 25, 2009 at 09:48:39:

In Reply to: Anna Davlantes a tad rusty in Fox News debut posted by chicagomedia.org on November 25, 2009 at 09:33:52:

A Fox News star is born
Davlantes steals the show in her WFLD debut


November 25, 2009
LEWIS LAZARE | Chicago Sun-Times


Anna Davlantes made her debut Monday night as a contributing anchor and reporter on the "Fox Chicago News at 9 p.m" on WFLD-Channel 32. And viewers could be forgiven if they came away from the hourlong newscast thinking Davlantes, who Fox is now touting as "one of the most talked-about personalities" in the Chicago market, was the show's new star.

Whether they liked it or not, co-anchors Robin Robinson and Jeff Goldblatt had to take a backseat to Davlantes, who at the top of the show introduced the evening's major investigative piece -- a look at how passengers at O'Hare and Midway airports can sometimes get through security using only a credit card or a gym pass for identification.

Davlantes also introduced several more segments over the course of the hour, and she reported another lengthy piece about a woman severely injured in a fluke taxi accident. In fact, Davlantes seemed to dominate the first 30 minutes of the show, with Goldblatt and Robinson appearing only to sort of reassume their co-anchor roles in the evening's second half.

Tuesday morning, a Fox spokeswoman said the station wanted to be sure to highlight Davlantes' arrival on Monday's newscast. The spokeswoman also indicated Davlantes' contributions and presence could fluctuate from night to night.

Certainly, the overnight ratings for Monday show that WFLD still has a ways to go to become a significant force in the late news ratings competition among the major local stations, though Davlantes appears to have given WFLD a significant lift in the ratings -- at least for her opening night. WFLD scored a 3.9 rating Monday night at 9 p.m., compared with a 2.2 rating for the same newscast a week earlier.

WGN's late newscast, which usually airs at 9 p.m. opposite WFLD's, did not air until well after 11 p.m. last night, because of a late Chicago Bulls telecast. But even at that late hour the WGN newscast scored a 2.9 rating. Meanwhile, WLS-Channel 7, per usual, far outperformed all other competitors at 10 p.m. on Monday, when its newscast scored a whopping 9.9 rating, compared with WBBM-Channel 2's 4.9 rating and WMAQ-Channel 5's 4.4 rating.

In an interview the morning after her debut on WFLD, Davlantes said she was extremely happy with her new position at the station.

"It's a great role for me," said Davlantes, who indicated she likes to mix it up as a TV news talent -- anchoring and reporting, including investigative pieces."This new job will allow me to do all of that."

Davlantes' boss, WFLD General Manager Michael Renda, said he was pleased with her debut.

"Robin and Jeff are still our co-anchors, and I think the addition of Anna will be a great service to our viewers," Renda said.



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