Paul Cicala has left the ABC-7 KVIA El Paso evening anchor position, according to an on-air announcement by co-anchor Marcel Clarke.
"My health isn’t the best and (I) needed to step away from the journalism industry," Cicala told the El Paso Times. "My father has dementia and it's getting worse."
"I am not ruling out a return to TV news or journalism-related jobs, but, am now concentrating on finding a career that gives me a normal schedule and a '9-5,'" Cicala added on Facebook.
Cicala returned to ABC-7 KVIA on September 25, 2023, co-anchoring the weekday 5, 6, and 10 p.m. newscasts alongside Stephanie Valle.
His return marked a homecoming to the Borderland after leading sports coverage in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona, as sports director and anchor at KVOA News 4.
An award-winning television journalist, Cicala has earned multiple Emmy Awards and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards throughout a career spanning news and sports. He previously worked at KVIA from 2009 to 2013, where he rose from weekend sports anchor to sports director in 2012. During that first stint, he became well known for his in-depth reporting on the drug-war violence affecting Ciudad Juárez, as well as for leading the station’s popular Borderland Blitz high school football show. In 2013, he was named “Best of the Best – Best TV News Anchor Under 40” by What’s Up El Paso.
Cicala’s Borderland reporting earned him two Edward R. Murrow Awards for a three-part international series filmed in Medellín, Colombia, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, examining the impact of the drug war along the border. He also received a Murrow Award for a feature on a Mexican immigrant’s success as a musician, highlighting talent developed in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Over the course of his career, Cicala has worked at television stations across the Southwest, including KESQ News Channel 3/Telemundo 15 Noticias (Palm Springs, California), KTNV Channel 13 (Las Vegas), KOLD 13 (Tucson, Arizona), and KYMA-DT (Yuma, Arizona).
He has been recognized with Regional Associated Press Awards for Best Sports Reporting, and in Tucson was voted “Best Sportscaster” by Tucson Weekly readers for eight consecutive years. Spanish-language magazine Perfil Social has also named him Best Male News Anchor multiple times.
Cicala began his career at FOX Sports in Los Angeles while attending the University of Southern California, where he graduated magna cum laude. After college, he joined NBC Network News, producing out of the Burbank bureau and traveling extensively to cover major national and international stories.
