Cheryl Jennings has been at KGO-TV/ABC7 in SF since 1979 and is generally regarded as one of the most dedicated news people in the business. Her unassuming style in the anchor chair, combined with a steady, no-nonsense approach to delivering the news is a chief asset.
Jennings is something of an anomaly in major-market TV news: she's considered "old" by business standards. Sure, it helps that Jennings is attractive and "easy on the eyes", (uh, TV is a visual medium) yet by most industry standards, the idea of a middle-aged woman anchor, no matter how talented, how versatile, is almost unheard of these days. Cynical? Sure. Reality? Yes.
Jennings exact age isn't known, but one would guess she's in her mid-to-late 50's. For a lot of women in TV news, whether reporting and/or anchoring, the post-50 era is often times the beginning of the end. Again, that sounds cruel, but in an increasingly competitive and bottom-line mentality like local TV news, it is fact.
Or have you not seen the growing legion of decidedly younger, cheaper, and yes, cute newswomen that have become a constant in the business. Its easy to go straight to Fox News and see their notorious staple of blond and young anchors, pundits, but the "young and cheap" model is most evident in the local news biz.
Jennings certainly has earned her stripes. An emmy winner, she joined ABC7 in 1979 as a general assignment reporter and became the weekend news anchor in 1986. In 1988, she was promoted to weekday anchor. She's a pioneer in reporting on children's issues, women's rights and domestic violence and has been recognized locally and nationally for her active involvement.
Recently, Jennings was selected by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Northern California Chapter for the 2009 Governor's Award for truly outstanding and unique accomplishments.
She looks like her eyes are closed when the camera is at a distance.
ReplyDeleteDid she just get back from Hawaii with the red lei she wore on January 13. Does she smoke? Bad face lift.
yikes, just saw her on the news today and her face looks drastically different. i'm afraid she may have had a bad facelift. I think it's better to age naturally than to turn your face into a kabuki mask. i'm sorry that she succumbed to the pressure to keep looking young, and I'm even more sorry that her plastic surgeon was apparently not very skilled.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for her, that horrible face lift makes her look older!
DeleteI hadn't watched the news for awhile and decided to turn it on today. OMG -- what happened to Cheryl Jennings face? She looks plastic!!!
ReplyDeleteher surgery made her look snake like
ReplyDeleteI can't watch her without staring at all the bad surgery and how her teeth don't work.
ReplyDeleteSomebody said she looked snakelike, I thought she had duck bill but snake works too. It's pity she had such a bad facelift, hard to look at without a bit of a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like she had some cheek implants and can't talk the same. I thought she was pretty before, now I can't stop looking at her face. Too bad.
ReplyDeleteSorry to say this but when she blinks her eyes remain 1/2 open. She acts way too cutesy. It's time to act your age.
ReplyDeleteDid she have a really bad face life, too much botox or what? Her face looks plastic and has no expression. Yikes...I thought she looked fine before.
ReplyDeleteOmg...she looks horrible, ...wtf is wrong with her mouth,...worst job i have ever seen....
ReplyDeleteWHY?....WHY?.....WHY????? She looks terrible! and now there is no going back to anything that would look even remotely normal. Such a tragic mistake -- didn't she have anyone close to her that was giving her feedback????
ReplyDeleteWe always tune in to see what has changed with her face. Every day she's on it looks different. I think her plastic surgeon needs to be put out of her/his misery.
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