Global News is pleased to reveal that Leslie Roberts, Anchor of Global Toronto’s flagship News Hour newscast, will be taking on additional duties as the permanent host for The Morning Show’s national edition. An award-winning journalist, Roberts brings a wealth of broadcast experience, a keen news sense and an informed viewpoint to the show’s unique conversational style. Roberts will join Liza Fromer, Kris Reyes and Rosey Edeh on-air from 9-9:30am ET beginning Monday, June 17.
“Not only is Leslie a consummate professional with years of experience in front of the camera, he is also a great conversationalist and is well-versed on everything from politics to pop culture,” says Troy Reeb, Senior Vice President, Global News. “Leslie’s chemistry with the rest of The Morning Showteam throughout his guest host appearances has been outstanding, and we’re excited to have him contribute to the already energized and intelligent on-air discussion on a daily basis.”
Biographical information is as follows:
Leslie Roberts: A fourth-generation journalist with almost 30 years of broadcast experience, Roberts first broke into television at CTV Montreal, before joining Global News as Global Quebec’s (now Global Montreal) News Director, and Anchor of its Evening News cast. Roberts moved to New York City as a correspondent for the news magazine program A Current Affair, later working for Fox News affiliate Fox5 before moving back to join Global Toronto in 2001. Roberts also hosted The Leslie Roberts Show on Toronto talk radio station Newstalk 1010, and has also written a weekly column for the National Post. Roberts is active in his community, sits on several charity boards and supports many notable causes and events.
In conjunction with his move to The Morning Show’s national edition, Roberts will leave his role as Anchor of Global Toronto’s News Hour Final at 11pm ET, and will be replaced by current weekend Evening News and News Final Anchor Carolyn MacKenzie. A new weekend anchor will be named this coming fall.
The local 6am-9am ET/PT version of The Morning Show will continue to feature Fromer, Reyes and Edeh alongside current co-host Antony Robart. Leslie Roberts will continue to helm Global Toronto’s flagship 5:30pm ET newscast News Hour alongside co-anchor Anne Mroczkowski.
In addition, Global News is pleased to announce that its award-winning news magazine 16×9 will be moving to a new Saturday at 7pm ET/PT time slot, providing the program with a more competitive news-relevant programming lead-in. Led by Chief Correspondent Carolyn Jarvis, 16×9 will continue to provide Canadians with the best and most poignant investigative news stories possible, presented in a way unmatched by the competition.
These additions are the latest in what has already been a stellar period of growth for Global News. Since May 2012, Global News has launched over 60 new hours of news programming a week, continuing to make it Canada’s fastest-growing news organization. The launch of Global News: BC 1 in January gave British Columbians the province’s first and only 24-hour news channel, while the groundbreaking re-launch of Globalnews.ca has already been recognized by industry insiders as being on the forefront of digital design and innovative branded sales opportunities. The emphasis on real-time, original and multimedia reporting that can be viewed across all platforms has made Globalnews.ca Canada’s fastest growing digital news property, bringing in an average of more than 1.2 million unique visitors a month in 2013.