I recently received an email tip that said Houston-based national reporter for CBS News, Karen Hua, was no longer with the network. That was followed by news in the New York Post and The U.S. Sun that Hua and Dallas-based correspondent Omar Villafranca were part of the recent job cuts made by owner Paramount.
Hua joined CBS News in February 2025, relocating to Houston from NBC10 Philadelphia (WCAU), where she had spent three years as a reporter. Prior to that, she worked at KGET 17 News in Bakersfield, California, and began her journalism career through NBCUniversal’s East Coast Page Program, gaining experience with NBC New York, CNBC, and The TODAY Show.
A first-generation Chinese American, Hua is fluent in Mandarin. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Honors English and Psychology in just three years.
The reported layoffs follow other recent staffing changes at CBS News, including the departure of longtime Houston network correspondent Janet Shamlian in late 2025.
According to the same reports, Villafranca was also affected by the Paramount cuts. He joined CBS News in 2014 as a Newspath correspondent. Before that, he worked at NBC 5 KXAS in Dallas-Fort Worth, News On 6 KOTV in Tulsa, and KSWO 7News in Lawton, Oklahoma.
Villafranca, a San Antonio native, holds a degree in broadcast journalism from Texas Christian University.
