Looks like KPRC 2 Houston is adding competition for Jennifer Reyna in the morning traffic battle.
KPRC 2 announced earlier this morning that Leigha McNeil is returning to Texas to join the station as its new morning traffic anchor. McNeil comes to Houston from WWL-TV Channel 4 in New Orleans, where she held the same position.
Quickly, let's take a look at our TranStar cameras for an I-69 detour to point out another recent roadblock in the morning TV traffic world: the upcoming departure of ABC13 KTRK SkyEye's Tammy Rose.
And here is where my media-blogging rabbit hole goes deeper, as you will notice in the video clip above. McNeil worked on the WWL morning show with former KPRC 2 reporter Brandon Walker and now KHOU 11 anchor Brheanna Berry (known as Brheanna Boudreaux in New Orleans). And let me add, my office doesn't have a bulletin board on the wall with a lot of red strings connecting photos of anchors...not yet, at least. If that happens, I'll take another "blogging break."
New FOX 5 Atlanta anchor Justina Latimer was the most recent morning traffic anchor at KPRC 2 before leaving the station in 2024. At the time, I heard KPRC had eliminated the dedicated traffic position.
Before Latimer, Anavid Reyes held the role after Jennifer Reyna left KPRC at the end of 2019. Reyes took over in 2020 before eventually leaving the position.
Reyna has since joined KHOU 11 as a traffic anchor in 2021 and recently expanded her role to include fill-in anchoring.
Let me add that Reyna leaving KPRC is still my number 1 all-time post. What's the second? Well, another KPRC traffic-related post: Did a KPRC reporter meltdown on live TV?
McNeil joined the WWL 4 morning team in September 2022 as a morning reporter before moving into the traffic anchor role.
Her return to Texas comes after several years in Louisiana and follows her time at KXXV 25 in Waco/Temple/Killeen. McNeil joined KXXV in August 2020 as a reporter based in the station's Killeen bureau and later became a weekend anchor.
An Emmy Award-winning journalist, McNeil was born and raised in New Orleans. She grew up in New Orleans East with her parents and younger brother, while spending much of her childhood in Uptown New Orleans, where she attended Lusher Charter School.
After high school, McNeil attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. During her junior year, she began working at News15 KADN/KLAF in Lafayette as an assistant news producer. She later moved up to multimedia journalist and weekend anchor.
She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and the National Association of Black Journalists.
