Melissa Holmes
It is Melissa for Marissa at Channel 2.
Anchor Melissa Holmes is leaving Channel 4 to become the 10 p.m. weekday anchor and a reporter at Channel 2, industry sources confirmed today.
Holmes (see left) will be replacing Marissa Bailey, who stilltalkintv reported last month is leaving Channel 2 sometime this month to look for work in Chicago.
An Amherst native, Holmes has been with Channel 4 for more than six years as a reporter and anchor. She currently anchors “Wake Up” at 7 in the morning and used to do a “Saving 4 You” segment that is similar to a Channel 2 feature on ways to save.
Her Channel 4 contract expired at the end of 2011. Non-compete clauses, which had been typically included in TV contracts, are now illegal in new contracts in New York State, according to sources. That enables Holmes to move to Channel 2 without having to sit out a period of time.
Channel 2 is expected to make the announcement sometime today. Holmes could not be reached for comment.
Holmes will be anchoring a Channel 2 newscast on WNYO that has been unable to make a dent in the strength of Channel 4′s dominant 10 O’Clock News on WNLO.
The move is another personnel loss for Channel 4, which lost its local news dominance from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. to Channel 2 in the November sweeps but remains a strong No. 1 at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
As a Ch 2 viewer, I will miss Marissa Bailey, but I think Melissa Holmes is a great addition for the station.
Another indication of how bad things have become at 4. They let contracts lapse and keep getting younger, dumber, cheaper. Channel 4 is becoming the training ground for Channel 2. Jodi Johnston, Kevin O’Neill, Marybeth Wrobel, Maria Genero, Lydia Dominick, not to mention Beard & O’Connell. No wonder it looks like amatuer hour over at WIVB.
Channel 4 is letting all of the good ones get away and pretty soon there will literally be no one worth watching. They did not utilize her talent at all so I wish her all the best at Channel 2, the best news station we have.
Melissa is a great replacement for Marissa. Channel 2 just keeps doing things right and it shows.
Speaking of WIVB departures, what happened to Allie Hartwick on “Winging It”?
She was replaced by the new CW girl since her contract was up. Who knows- Allie might end up at Ch 2 also. That seems to be the trend lately.
Gosh, I hope not! Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard.
Apparently 4 didn’t like the congratulations and well wishes that Melissa Holmes was getting on her station facebook page. It no longer exists as of today.
Also, it only took about 2 years to find Lisa Flynn’s replacement for the 5:30 and 10pm shows. The new anchor is Diana Fairbanks, and she actually is not “kiddie corps” material, having 13 years of experience. Wow…Musial actually hired someone with experience…
Channel 2 will soon become #1 in all time slots. I wish ch.2 would have a sunday morning newscast, then I probably would never watch ch. 4′s news. I don’t know why, but I’m not that crazy about Melissa Holmes. Mabe it was because she was on ch.4, I’ll see if my opinion changes now. By the way, just discovered this site. Nice to read Allen P. again, just added the site to my favorites.
Thanks for the kind words. Pass info about the site around. It is primarily word-of-mouth.
Ch 2 does have a Sunday morning newscast. Daybreak Sunday is on from 6:30-8am.