“Good Day LA” anchor and “Extra” correspondent Melvin Robert is heading to KTLA, where he will join the “KTLA Morning News” team as entertainment anchor the week of March 17. Robert will fill the chair that had been held for decades by L.A. TV icon Sam Rubin, who died last May.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for Robert, who previously worked on “KTLA Morning News” between 2016 and 2018 and first interned there as a teenager. More recently, Robert was one of the original anchors at Spectrum News 1; he then joined “Extra” as a senior correspondent and weekend co-host in 2022, adding KTTV’s “Good Day LA” to the mix in 2023.
“It’s really exciting day to be back here,” Robert said of KTLA. “I’m a Southern California native, I grew up in Inglewood. I always dreamed of being on the ‘KTLA Morning News.’ It’s the most iconic show in LA. It is the morning show in LA. I was so grateful back then have the opportunity to contribute as a culture and lifestyle contributor. And then I went other places, and I feel like all those other stops along the way, which were extraordinary moments in my life and in my career, led me back home, here to this place.”
Robert will work alongside “KTLA Morning News” anchors Frank Buckley and Jessica Holmes, as well as long-running weather anchor Mark Kriski. Since Rubin’s passing, entertainment news has been handled by a mix of fill-ins.
“I’m so excited to really get in here and to play and to collaborate with everyone and to make my contribution on the show,” Robert said. “And, of course, to celebrate the legacy of the ‘KTLA Morning News,’ and celebratedthe legacy of Sam. There’s been some extraordinary people that have that have come and been a part of KTLA. Sam, and also [late KTLA anchor] Larry McCormick. Larry McCormick somebody who paved the way for me as a black anchor in Los Angeles, and he was so iconic here for so many years.
“And so to be able to just stand on the shoulders of these extraordinary giants and to celebrate Sam’s legacy every day,” he added. “Sam wrote the playbook for what this is. He was here from the beginning, since the show launched in 1991.”
Erica Hill-Rodriguez, KTLA’s director of news and content, said she had been following Robert’s career for some time, and that ultimately he felt like the right fit to take on the entertainment role. “What we were looking for was really a difficult thing to answer in the construct of the loss of Sam,” she said. “And we really were intentional here about ensuring that we were paying legacy and tribute to to Sam and to the entertainment team that he built. We wanted to give a lot of space after his passing to even start to think about what that might look like and to heal from that.
“After that time, we spent a lot of time as a team talking about all of the things that Sam brought to the show,” she added. “The truth is, there is no replacing somebody like Sam Rubin. But there is paying homage to the legacy he built, and then we’re going to evolve. We’re going to to bring light and love to our entertainment segments into our morning show. And that was something that Melvin really embodies. I think his his heart and his experience in both in local and in the entertainment space is tremendous.”
Robert said his recent years at “Extra” has helped prepare him to focus full-time on the entertainment beat.
“I’m so grateful for the confidence and and trust that they, you know, bestowed upon me to be one of the leaders on that show, to give me the type of assignments that they gave me,” he said. “They put me with the biggest stars, and they put me in the most prominent positions. And it was such a an extraordinary gift. To go on a show like that, and you are truly front and center with the biggest stars. J Lo, Harrison Ford, Oprah, George Clooney, Julia Roberts. To meet and forge relationships with them and their publicists and to build that equity and that trust. It really did set the table for me to take on this opportunity here at KTLA, to bring those relationships and bring those connections.”
A Loyola Marymount University alum, Robert spent 11 years as a teacher, counselor, administrator and consultant in education before taking on a new career in journalism. At Spectrum News 1, he hosted “Your Morning on Spectrum News 1” and “The SoCal Scene,” and in 2022 won Broadcast Journalist of the Year honors at the L.A. Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Awards.
“When I made this transition, a lot of people told me that I was too old and that it was too late, and questioned why I didn’t go pursue this when I was 21 just out of college,” he said. “So I feel like I take great pride in representing for those people too. That it is not too late to be what you might have been. It makes me emotional to think that, 11 years later, I did it!”
