WMAQ sports anchor Paula Faris is joining ABC News as co-anchor of “World News Now.”

Faris will co-anchor ABC’s overnight newscast with Rob Nelson, an ABC spokesperson confirms to TVSpy. Additionally, Faris will contribute “on a consistent basis” to “Good Morning America,” according to Matthew Kingsley, Faris’ agent.

Faris signed off from WMAQ, the NBC O&O in Chicago, earlier this month. News of her hire at ABC News has been widely reported since October, when Time Out Chicago’s Robert Feder first broke the news. ABC tells TVSpy an official announcement will be made in the near future.

Faris will join former WMAQ colleague Ginger Zee at ABC News. Zee joined “GMA” as weekend weather anchor in November.

Alvin Gauthier Jr., a 39-year veteran of the production department at New Orleans CBS-affiliate WWL, died on Wednesday of natural causes. He was 61.

Gauthier worked at WWL from 1971-2009. Before he retired, he was the floor director and studio camera operator for the morning and noon newscasts.

“On a show like the morning show, with so many guests … sometimes it’s like a three-ring circus in that studio,” WWL anchor Eric Paulsen told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “He was a born leader.”

Rob Nelson, who left WWL last year to join ABC’s “World News Now,” told the Times-Picayune Gauthier was a mentor to him. Read more