KOMO headline: Anchor Mary Nam to leave KOMO News at end of month after 23 years
On Wednesday, Nam shared with the newsroom that the difficult decision to leave was several years in the making, and that after 23 years at KOMO television, this was the right time to pursue a new path.
Nam joined KOMO News in 2003 after beginning her journalism career in Spokane at KXLY-TV.
Next adventure…
TBA
Lauren Scafidi started her assignment at Denver’s 9News Labor Day Weekend of 2023. It was announced this week that Scafidi is leaving 9NEWS for a destination yet to be announced. Prior to Denver, her journalism career began in 2017 at 9&10 News in Northern Michigan.
For those who are curious about her next move, watch her final newscast on Sunday, check her personal site laurenscafidi.com, or @laurenscafiditv on Instagram.
Congratulations, but please STOP!
KING 5’s meteorologist, Leah Pezzetti has an Instagram account also, @leahpezzetti is the address. She recently announced her engagement and the romantic proposal, showing the ring in pictures on that page. And then there is this –Don’t know about you, but I find these video gimmicks to be quite tiresome. It is almost as bad as dance or “reaction” videos.
What is Liz Dueweke up to these days? Her Instagram update states that she will be returning as emcee for @Kindering’s 32nd Annual Auction Gala on March 21, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue.
“Kindering does life-changing work by supporting children of *all* abilities through pediatric therapies, family services, and more. I’ve seen firsthand the strength of this community, and I’m honored to be part of this beautiful event once again.”
By now, many of us expected to see Liz back at the anchor desk here in Seattle. Not quite yet—she’s thriving in a new chapter as a Communications and Media Relations Specialist at the Allen Institute in Seattle, where she amplifies groundbreaking research in neuroscience, synthetic biology, and health science (including co-hosting episodes of their LabNotes podcast/series).
In the same capacity at the Allen Institute, you will find former KING 5 New Day hostess, Amity Addrisi, and former KIRO 7 meteorologist Ed Muir.
Women at the Anchor Desk
PEOPLE magazine reports: In her forthcoming memoir Joan: Life Beyond the Script, 75-year-old Joan Lunden vividly recalls a dramatic early moment from her career: one of her first times co-anchoring at New York’s WABC-TV Eyewitness News in late September 1976.
Arriving at the newsroom, Lunden discovered that station director Al Tindiglia had selected her to substitute for the station’s star anchor Bill Beutel on the 6 p.m. newscast during his vacation. This announcement caught Beutel’s regular co-anchor, Roger Grimsby, completely off guard—he was present in the room when the news broke.
Lunden describes the reaction: “When Grimsby realized—for the very first time—that Tindiglia was letting me take the seat next to him on the 6 p.m. news while Bill was away, he lost it,” she writes. “He jumped up from the couch, charged across the room, and got right up in my face, nose-to-nose. He was so enraged he could barely speak coherently. Inches away, he screamed: ‘You don’t deserve to sit next to me and anchor the goddamn New York Eyewitness News! You haven’t been through the school of hard knocks, for Christ’s sake. You’re still wet behind the ears. You haven’t paid your dues—the price for that anchor desk. You haven’t earned your way up to this big-time broadcast like the rest of us have!'”
In a fit of anger, Grimsby slammed the script from his hand onto the floor and stormed out, leaving Lunden completely stunned. The hostility carried over to the set itself. “An eerie silence fell over everything,” she recalls. “No one cracked jokes or bantered like usual as airtime approached—the tension was palpable.” Grimsby opened the show and ran through the evening’s story lineup before tossing it to Lunden. Turning to her with cold, threatening eyes, he delivered a single, cutting word: “Barbara”—a deliberate dig at Barbara Walters, who had recently made history by becoming the first woman to co-anchor a network evening newscast (alongside Harry Reasoner at ABC News) after signing a landmark million-dollar annual contract. This incident, Lunden notes, underscored the intense pushback she encountered as a young woman stepping into a traditionally male-dominated role in 1970s broadcasting.
