Lauren Talarico announced that she's leaving her KHOU 11 weekend morning anchor/reporting job and Houston on June 21, 2023.
UPDATE
WATCH: Lauren Talarico signs off KHOU 11 weekend mornings
Here is a portion of what Talarico posted on social:
"This career has given me so much...passion, focus, meaning. Some of the stories I’ve been trusted to tell have broken my heart and kept me up at night, while others have filled me with so much hope seeing the love that we can have for one another.
The one thing this job can’t give me is my family. I’m leaving KHOU to move closer to them. I miss them and want my children to have the joy of those daily interactions.
This was not an easy decision. It took months of soul searching and tears to decide. Walking into Liz’s office (my news director) to deliver that news was so hard and I’ll never forget the kindness and support she showed to me.
This job is important. Ethical journalists are important. KHOU is special. The way we tell stories is special. The empathy and compassion that is considered in every story we tell is special. The way we treat each other in this newsroom is special. It’s been an honor to work alongside you all."
Weekend anchor Cheryl Mercedes posts that Talarico is moving back to New York.
The award-winning journalist recently changed her reporting schedule from nights to days last January.
In January 2020, Talarico and then meteorologist Addison Green (now Kim Castro) launched the new KHOU Sunday morning newscast. When Brandi Smith became the KHOU 11 digital anchor and left the Saturday morning anchor gig open, Talarico took those duties to anchor both weekend mornings.
And speaking of Castro, the meteorologist and Talarico post expertly choreographed dance moves every weekend in the empty 5718 Westheimer dance studio.
More importantly while in Houston, Talarico and husband Charlie Briffitt welcomed children Ella Annmarie in 2017 and Jack in 2020 to the family. As an author of children's book Teatime with Tigers, Talarico can read her own book to the kiddos!
Talarico joined KHOU 11 in July 2014 from WLTX News19 Columbia, South Carolina where she was the morning anchor.
When Talarico was hired at channel 11, I got excited by her last name, because it sounded like the actual last name of Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. Both are from New York, so I had to ask were they related, because I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.
"Nope! Not related to Steven 'Talerico,'" Talarico told me with an LOL. "I'm surprised you know that, you must be a fan. We spell our names differently. He uses an 'e' as the 4th letter and mine in an 'a'. It would be pretty cool if I were though."
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville grad also worked for an Academy-Award winning company in London.
Houston television viewers tell me they can't believe how many personnel changes there have been in local news over the last years, but weekend mornings have been fairly stable as of late. That started changing in 2023, when Cathy Hernandez and Brittany Jeffers took over weekend mornings on KPRC 2 and Erica Simon recently left the shift at abc13 KTRK.
(Thanks Shad!)
