Michaela Pereira joins CNN as the news anchor for the network’s new morning show. For the past nine years, she has anchored the morning newscast at KTLA in Los Angeles.

WISN weekend sports anchor and reporter Dario Melendez is joining ESPN in Bristol, Conn.

Janet Rodriguez joins the Telemundo News Network as a national correspondent based in Chicago.  Previously, she was a reporter for Telemundo’s KTAZ in Phoenix.

After nearly five years as a reporter at WXYZ in Detroit, Tom Wait moves home to Los Angeles as he joins KCBS. Read more

KTLA morning anchor Michaela Pereira is leaving the Los Angeles CW affiliate to join CNN.

Pereira will be the news anchor for the network’s new morning show, which will be anchored by Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan.

“I couldn’t be more excited to join the CNN family and have the opportunity to be part of a brand new morning team,” Pereira said in a statement. “As a veteran of morning television being part of this new endeavor is a dream come true.”

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Pereira has been the co-host of KTLA’s morning newscast for nine years. During her time with the program, it has won 13 Emmy Awards. Prior to joining KTLA, she hosted on TechTV, ZDTV and CHEK-TV in Canada.

>Update: KTLA has released a statement on Pereira’s departure. “Michaela has been a huge contributor to the station’s success in the morning. She is an outstanding journalist with a unique ability to connect with the audience,” GM Don Corsini said. “Everyone at KTLA is of course sorry that she is leaving us, but we wish her success and happiness with this professional opportunity.”

Shortly after 11amET/8amPT, Benedict XVI departed the Vatican for the last time as Pope. Local stations in the top five markets broadcast special coverage of his departure and flight to Castel Gandolfo, the Vatican’s vacation retreat.

ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas broadcast national coverage from their affiliated networks of the Pope’s final farewell.

Fox News Channel’s Rick Folbaum anchored a special report that was broadcast on the Fox O&Os. KTTV in Los Angeles incorporated coverage of the farewell address into the morning newscast, anchored by Steve Edwards, instead of taking the national report.

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Without national coverage to broadcast, CW affiliates produced their own special reports. Sukanya Krishnan and Frances Rivera anchored on WPIX in New York City, Frank Buckley and Michaela Pereira anchored on KTLA in Los Angeles, and Steve Sanders and Dina Bair anchored on WGN in Chicago.

Philly’s CW affiliate WPSG is owned by CBS and operated as a duopoly with KYW. KDAF, the CW affiliate in Dallas, had no special coverage of the Pope’s farewell.