KIII is expanding its weekday morning newscast.  Beginning this week, the Corpus Christi ABC-affiliate is adding an extra thirty minutes to its morning show, moving its start time to 5:00 a.m.

“We are proud to be able to provide an additional half-hour of morning news to the viewers of South Texas,” KIII news director Richard Longoria said, announcing the programming change. “We’ll continue to make sure our viewers have all the information they need to get their day going.”

The change to the morning newscast, which will continue to be anchored by John Thomas and Caitlin Espinosa, comes two weeks after the station introduced veteran Texas broadcast executive Dan Robbins as its vice president and general manager.

“We are pleased to bring the expanded version of 3News First Edition into viewers’ homes every morning,” Robbins said.

KIII joins market rivals KRIS and KZTV at 5:00 a.m.