Sources confirm KING5 weekend evening anchor Madison Wade is leaving after a four-year run. She's getting married soon and relocating with the groom. She joined the station in June 2022 and has specialized in a series a stories on unsolved crimes in the PNW.
This adds to the reporter shortage at K5 with Maddie White and hubby Drew Andre to SFO, as reported here previously. Farah Jadran could move up from weekend mornings, but I also wonder if Christine Pae would give up KONG weekday mornings and KING noons on weekdays to get a solo weekend, higher viewed, evening newscast. Another reporter, Savannah Welch, could also move to the desk, which would remove her from the field for two more days. Getting tight over there!
World Cup coming, Seahawks training camp, too. Silvi and Egan tied up in a new morning live/streaming experiment show, lots of big news stories looming in what has already been a violent month of attacks.
Congrats to Madison on her upcoming marriage! Best of luck to her in her future endeavors.
ReplyDeleteAs for KING, their shortage of reporters just took another turn for the worse, and now its impacting the anchor desk as well. As much as I believe Christine fully deserves her current weekday anchor position, moving her to weekend evenings tempoarily might be the best strategy for KING to keep as many reporters in the field as possible as the World Cup draws closer. Jake and Mimi can take on Pae's current duties for the time-being.
With the May sweeps ending Weds and vacations coming, gonna be some juggling. I would go with Pae on wknd evening and get her back on the street for three days. They could give Jake and Mimi alternate last half hours off on King and take turns soloing Kong. Welch can do the noon and report after the show on an 8-4 sked
DeleteThat would work so long as KING still has one reporter available for the morning newscast. Farah can do that three days per week. But who could do the other two days if Welch is anchoring at Noon and reporting later in the day? Welch typically reports for the morning newscast, and Drew Andre, who just left, also had that role. Even chronically short-staffed KIRO manages to have at least one reporter available for the morning newscast. I would hate to see KING, which is a better position staffing wise than KIRO even with this current reporter shortage, fail to do something that even KIRO can manage.
DeleteTegna needs to send in a couple of reporters from other stations to stem the tide. Probably inventory promised and at stake. Reinforcements! ND Susannah Frame not used to this churn, after only managing investigations. Tick, tick, tick.
DeleteI agree. The question is which Tegna station(s) can afford to spare a reporter right now to help KING.
DeleteKING would have to request it from the home office. They did during the Oso landslide but this is a planned event. Tegna might send someone to feed the chain of stations for World Cup
ReplyDeleteDidn't see that coming since Madison is a Seattle native, but she's understandably leaving to be with her guy. Adding to KING's short-staffing crisis: Jessica is still on maternity leave and Shante will be there at some point. So yeah, they need to send an SOS to Tegna or something...
DeleteAnd after the dust settles, someone should update the "Meet the Team" section of the website, which still lists Drew, Maddie, and Conner...
I didn't realize Shante was going to be on maternity leave soon. KING will need to find someone to fill her traffic reporter role while she is away, which won't be easy given the current reporter shortage. Tegna needs to step in and help KING rebuild its reporter roster before the shortage becomes larger!
DeleteOne morning last week, Leah Pezzetti handled traffic duties while Ashley Ruiz did the weather. There may be more of that until reinforcements are brought in...
DeleteWayne: KING has been streaming newscasts when their normal time slots are preempted for sports. Could/should they cut back on those while they're short-handed?
Leah has versatility and personality so that's a good plan with Claibon and Ruiz factoring in, too for weather. On streaming, I don't think they will cede any territory even with tight staffing and NBC has the Western finals, so still games ahead especially if they go 7. I also wonder if they will throw the new sports show in there to get it over with fans.
DeleteI thought Madison was a very strong anchor who in time could headline a 5pm newscast regularly. Big loss for KING
ReplyDeleteFrom Madeleine Wade to Madeline Carter. Everyone knows Carter is sliding in. She was hired as a reporter/anchor when they got rid of Steve Soliz. When they posted her job it was listed as reporter but when you read the description it said anchor. Everyone in the newsroom knows she’s the next to be bumped up the anchor line up.
ReplyDelete