Mia Gradney 3rd anchor on KHOU 11 morning news?

Putting Mia Grandey on anchor desk is KHOU's latest move on morning news chess board

Mia Gradney

Watching the Houston TV morning news race between KHOU and KTRK as of late reminds me of the Cold War era arms race. One news department is constantly reacting and trying to top the other one. Here's to hoping there is no Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) at the end though.

Each station now must do everything to take out new Houston morning ratings leader KPRC and its two new additions, but the KTRK vs KHOU morning war seems to be more connected.

The latest move appears to be the upping of reporter Mia Gradney to the KHOU 11 News This Morning anchor desk in the past weeks. That's right, there are three anchors on set now including Gradney, Ron Trevino and Lily Jang.

Patricia Lopez

Let's go back in time to 2007 or so (year of arrival not in her bio), when Patricia Lopez showed up at KTRK abc13 to focus on family oriented consumer stories. Stories like how to save money on meals, free stuff for families to do on the weekend...etc. On Lopez's Facebook page, the description is, "ACTION 13 CONSUMER Reporter Patricia Lopez is focused on women's issues and saving you money through her weekly 'Stretch your Dollar' segments on abc13."

KHOU decides to strike back.

Move forward to the summer of 2012 when Gradney leaves KIAH 39 and jumps to KHOU 11 where she is assigned to report on family issues for the station's morning news. Her reporting is described on Facebook as, "Mommy matters, family life, health happenings, and a whole lot more!"

Right before November sweeps 2013, KTRK moves Lopez to mornings which pits the two reporters against each other. While one is waging battle with a free fashion advice app, the other is blasting out smoothie dos and don'ts. Sounds like something out of Sun Tzu's The Art Of War. In this new role, Lopez sits at the anchor desk and is on camera throughout the show - much more than her days in the afternoon newscasts.

Then last week I'm tipped off that Gradney is now an anchor on KHOU's morning newscasts. Sure enough, in my monitoring of the 6am show over the last few days, she is an active participant throughout. But even with the added duties, Gradney still reports on her "mommy matters" beat as of now.

So what will be KTRK's next strike? Lopez will get a full half-hour show during the morning news block?

Neither Gradney nor a KHOU representative would confirm to me that she is officially an anchor on the show. But this follows the T.O.T.T.S. acronym I am now using to confirm things in these cases - Turn On The Television Stupid.

Since you're still reading, you might be interested to know this is not the only anchor change KHOU has made in 2014 so far.

Stay tuned.

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