One week after longtime Los Angeles TV personality Steve Edwards left “Good Day L.A.” under circumstances that remain cloudy, his replacement Rita Garcia was introduced to the KTTV/Channel 11 morning show on Monday.
Edwards, 69, who came to Los Angeles for work on TV and radio starting in 1978, had hosted “Good Day L.A.” from 1995 until last week. No explanation for his departure has been publicly made beyond a single sentence from a Fox spokeswoman confirming that “Steve Edwards is no longer employed by KTTV.”
The quick shift to Garcia, who joins co-host Megan Colarossi, on the weekday broadcasts from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., suggests that a change had been in the works before Edwards’s abrupt exit. The Houston Chronicle reported Dec. 4 that Garcia was leaving her job as a weekday morning anchor on Houston’s KRIV/Channel 26, a sister station in the Fox network to KTTV in Los Angeles.
And Garcia also showed up on “Good Day L.A.” in October, working for a few days as a visiting Fox anchor from Texas, though now it’s clear she was here for an on-air tryout. Whether that audition was for Edwards’ job specifically or another position – Garcia is now co-host with Megan Colarossi, so it’s possible she was runner-up to Colarossi initially and hired once Edwards left the building – isn’t clear.
“Rita is an experienced journalist who is already familiar with the unique culture and landscape of Southern California, making her the perfect addition to the ‘Good Day L.A.’ morning team,” said Kristine Knutsen, KTTV’s vice president and news director, in a written statement announcing her arrival.
While Garcia is a Texas native, and started her career in television there, she spent about six years as a reporter in Los Angeles, working for KCBS/KCAL before moving to the Houston station where she worked until this latest move.
“I’m thrilled to be returning to Los Angeles, staying in the Fox family and working alongside such a talented group of journalists,” Garcia said in a written statement. “It’s been an honor to greet Houstonians in the morning and I’m looking forward to doing the same in L.A.”
While Edwards had been a familiar face on “Good Day L.A.” for more than two decades the show now has co-hosts with less than a month’s combined experience. Colarossi, a Fullerton native who had worked in recent years on television in New York City, arrived to work briefly as Edward’s co-host earlier this month.
