Yet another troubling development involving former KTVU anchor Frank Somerville, as we’re learning of a November 2024 incident over which he’s now charged with battery, and the story sure is similar to what got him arrested again last month.

We really want to root for former KTVU news desk anchor Frank Somerville, who’s been in recovery from alcoholism after some deeply embarrassing incidents where he was slurring his words on the air, seemingly was fired from KTVU, racked up a couple DUIs, and was sometimes arrested multiple times in a single evening. But some recent developments make it very difficult to root for him.

While Somerville says he’s now nine months sober, and we do want to take him at his word on that, his disturbing streak continued when he was arrested for battery on September 15 in what appeared to be a physical alteration with his daughter. Even if he’s sober, that’s pretty problematic.    

Somerville has not been charged over that incident. But just three days after that happened, the Chronicle unearthed the detail that Somerville had been arrested for battery on November 19, 2024, which had not been previously reported. And on Wednesday, the Chronicle reported that Somerville has been charged with misdemeanor battery by the Alameda County District Attorney over that November 2024 incident.

Per the Chronicle, Somerville’s partner Elaine Colman “told police he had been drinking all day and that at one point she believed he was suffering a mental health episode. She started recording him, but he noticed. He allegedly lunged at her and wrestled her to the ground.”

The Chron adds that Somerville alleged punched both Colman and their daughter on that day.

When reached by the Chronicle, Somerville seemed penitent, and said this happened before he went into recovery. “That’s all my fault, because I was drunk,” he told the paper, saying this was the last straw that actually pushed him to stop drinking. “I have and I am continuing to put in the work,” he added.

Both Colman and the daughter reportedly pursued restraining orders or stay-away orders after this November 2024 incident, though both apparently dropped those requests, perhaps satisfied that Somerville had gone into recovery. But the Chronicle notes that the daughter’s stay-away order application said that Somerville allegedly “pushed me into the TV, pulled my hair and punched me in the face,” and he “tried holding me down by putting force on my neck.”

Somerville’s first court appearance over these charges is scheduled for October 6.

Related: Former Anchor Frank Somerville's Domestic Dispute Story Differs From Daughter's, According to Police [SFist]

Image: Frank Somerville via Facebook

After his arrest Monday night in Oakland, former KTVU anchor Frank Somerville publicized his side of a domestic battery story involving his 20-year-old daughter. But it seems that his daughter's version is different, and both are pressing charges against each other.

A Monday fight between father and daughter, apparently over money, turned fairly brutal, but the details of who the aggressor was may end up playing out in court. After getting let out on bail Tuesday morning on a battery charge, Somerville posted to Facebook his own account, including a claim that his daughter is "a full blown weed addict" and came to his home "in withdrawal" Monday evening, asking for money.

He further claimed that after a physical altercation, his daughter fled, and he followed her to his ex-wife's home out of fear that the daughter could get into a fight there as well. He also claimed that police arrested him despite his daughter saying she didn't want to press charges.

As the Chronicle reports Wednesday, that may not exactly be how things went down. The fight was allegedly about money, with Somerville's daughter Callie apparently upset that her bank account was overdrawn. He reportedly told Oakland police that he put a hand on his daughter's waist to usher her out of the home after asking her to leave, and he claimed that she then snatched his cellphone. In an effort to get his phone back, he said, he tackled her to the ground, breaking a table in the process.

While this was happening, he said, she was punching and scratching his face, leaving him bloody. And he apparently put his daughter in a neck restraint — she says to the point that she nearly passed out. The scuffle ended, reportedly, when a neighbor knocked on the door.

After following his daughter to his ex-wife's home, Somerville arrived to find police already there. Sources tell the Chronicle that Somerville decided to press charges against his daughter only after learning that she was pressing charges against him.

Police said they found her sitting in her car in a driveway, with a bloody shirt, and welts on her neck. She was not arrested, but Somerville was.

Monday marked Frank Somerville's fourth run-in with the law in the last four years, after a domestic incident involving his brother two years ago, and a couple of DUIs.

Somerville has not been on air at KTVU since the fall of 2021, after a brief return to the station following an extended leave of absence. Somerville disappeared from the airwaves after a Memorial Day broadcast that year in which he was visibly dazed and slurring his words on air, and having trouble reading a teleprompter.

Somerville subsequently got into a DUI crash in downtown Oakland that December, and later admitted that he was an alcoholic and in treatment.

An attorney for Somerville, Shannan Dugan, tells the Chronicle that she hopes the two can settle their differences outside of court, adding, "I know he loves his daughter and I’m sure that his daughter loves him."

Somerville said in his Tuesday Facebook post that he remains nine months sober.

Previously: Former KTVU Anchor Frank Somerville Arrested Again In Oakland, Says It Stemmed From Fight With Daughter

The saga of Frank Somerville, the former anchor of KTVU's popular nightly newscast, continues with another arrest, this time for battery, in what's now his fourth run-in with the law.

Bay Area News Group reports that Somerville was arrested Monday evening around 6:50 pm, somewhere in Oakland, but the complete details of the incident remain unclear — the news group is going solely on publicly available jail records at Santa Rita Jail. The arrest was on suspicion of battery with serious bodily injury, and Somerville has subsequently tried to explain the situation on social media.

Somerville remained in custody until Tuesday morning, and it appeared he had made bail sometime around 10 am, when the jail record reportedly changed.

On Facebook, Somerville posted a selfie with a bloodied face Tuesday morning, saying, "I want to address my arrest," and saying that he remains nine months sober.

"My daughter is a full blown weed addict. She smokes morning noon and night. Yesterday she was in withdrawal and demanding money," Somerville writes.

Can a person be "in withdrawal" from cannabis? I digress.

Somerville said his daughter, Callie, came to his home uninvited and "We got into a physical fight because she wouldnt leave." He alleges that after Callie left he called his ex-wife and then went to his ex-wife's home, where Callie apparently lives, for fear that another altercation could occur.

"By the time I got there Callie had called the police," Somerville writes. "They arrested me even though Callie told them she didn’t want to press charges."

He adds, "I love my daughter more than anything in the world. I would never deliberately try to hurt her. But bad things happen in battle. I can only hope my daughter gets treatment."

There was apparently a witness to the first altercation, Somerville's girlfriend, and he says that they were on their way to the gym when his daughter showed up.

Somerville's last brush with the law came in June 2023, when he was arrested in connection with a pair of druken incidents in Berkeley, beginning with an altercation at a family home with his brother. The brother called the police, Somerville was taken to jail for several hours, and then returned to the brother's house around 3:30 am, ringing the doorbell, looking to retrieve his car that he'd left there.

Police were called again, and this time they observed Somerville driving while intoxicated — a parole violation following his first DUI arrest after a crash in downtown Oakland in late December 2021. In May 2024, Somerville took a plea deal in connection with the incident, pleading no contest to the parole violation and alcohol-related reckless driving, and being sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Those incidents followed Somerville's fast fall from grace at KTVU, where he'd worked for many years. He appeared on a Memorial Day Weekend broadcast in 2021 visibly dazed and slurring his words — something he blamed on having mistakenly taken a prescribed Ambien pill before going on air. After that he was placed on leave for several months without explanation, and later was let go from the station after a brief return, following a reported conflict with the news director over his treatment of the Gabby Petito story.

He admitted in a December 2023 interview that he was an alcoholic, and said he was attending five AA meetings per week.

Things seemed to be going pretty well for the 67-year-old Somerville earlier this year when he posted a photo of his flexed bicep to Facebook, showing off a Batman tattoo and saying that he now hits the gym five times a week.

"I can also set goals now and achieve them," he wrote, regarding his sobriety. "My next goal is to run an 8 minute mile. Right now I’m down to 9:30."

Somerville has been posting photos he's been taking around the Bay Area on Facebook, and says he now attends six AA meetings a week. Early last month, he also posted about having a happy day at a water park in San Jose with his daughter Callie and her boyfriend.

Two weeks ago, he wrote, "I’m realizing that going thru recovery is like peeling back an onion that is so big that it has no boundaries so I may never get to the end."

Previously: Now-Sober Frank Somerville Has Gotten Completely Buff, Apparently Has a Batman Tattoo

After a spectacular fall from grace that included two arrests in the same night, longtime KTVU anchor Frank Somerville is looking amazing, clearly has been working out, and is now sporting a Batman tattoo on his surprisingly muscular right arm.

The disturbing downward spiral for 30-year KTVU anchor Frank Somerville started (well, we first noticed it) when he was slurring his words on-air on the Bay Area’s highest-rated local news broadcast during Memorial Day weekend 2021. (He would not appear in the KTVU anchor seat again.) Six months later, Somerville was arrested for a DUI crash in Oakland with a blood alcohol content of 0.24%. But it was truly rock-bottom when Somerville was arrested twice in one night in Berkeley in June 2023, with the second arrest being a suspicion of DUI.  

Somerville gave a December 2023 interview to KRON4 in which he admitted he was an alcoholic, and was attending five AA meetings a week. We have not heard much from him since. But we did hear from him again in a May 2 Facebook post, and damn he looks good. Plus he apparently now has a Batman tattoo?

“Since I’ve been sober I can finally be totally consistant (sic) in all aspects of my life including being in the gym 5 days a week,” Somerville says in the post. “I’d love to be there 7 days but sometimes I’ve got to give my 67 year old body time to rest.”

“I can also set goals now and achieve them,” he adds. “My next goal is to run an 8 minute mile. Right now I’m down to 9:30.”

“So I’ve got my work cut out for me,” he concludes. “But I’ll get there because as we say in our meetings: I’m sober as f—k!!!”

Some people may be skeptical that Somerville is doing as well as he depicts, just given the events, and the denial in which he engaged in some interviews during the ugly phase. But you can’t deny that he looks heads and shoulders healthier than in his December 2023 KRON4 interview, or that bearded look he was sporting in early 2023.

And come on, when’s the last time you saw a set of guns like that on a 67-year-old man? It’s a sign that Frank Somerville has likely turned things around, and we’re rooting for Frank that this continues.

Related: Frank Somerville Gives Full Interview to KRON4, Says He'd Like to Get Back to Anchoring [SFist]

Image: Frank Somerville via Facebook

KTVU meteorologist Bill Martin started as a weekend weatherman at KTVU in 1992, also did the weather for KRON4 and KPIX, and delivers his final SF TV news weather forecast on KTVU Thursday night as he surfs off into retirement.

KTVU meteorologist Bill Martin was living in a van when he got his first weatherman gig in 1991 at KFTY Channel 50 in Santa Rosa, as recalled by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The UC Berkeley and SF State grad had never worked in television before, yet beat out more seasoned TV meteorologists for the job. A year later, Martin filled some pretty big shoes at KTVU, taking over for the retiring Pat McCormick — a local cult hero, because McCormick had also hosted the popular local shows Dialing for Dollars and the children’s puppet series Charley and Humphrey.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by KTVU Channel 2 News (@ktvu2)

And now it is Bill Martin’s big shoes that need to be filled, as KTVU’s chief meteorologist announced last month he would be retiring. And tonight, Thursday, February 27, Martin will broadcast his final weather reports on the KTVU evening news.  

Martin will deliver weather reports on Thursday’s 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, 10 pm, and 11 pm broadcasts. So you've got five more chances to see Bill Martin do the weather on KTVU, but tonight's 11 pm news will be his final outing on KTVU FOX 2.

“I’ve never been anywhere else,” Martin said (referring to the Bay Area market) when announcing his retirement in the January 23 broadcast above. “I started in the Bay Area market. But I think about Dennis (Richmond), I think about Elaine (Corral), I think about Randy (Shandobil), and I think about Bob MacKenzie and John MacKenzie, all the people we’ve known over the years who’ve come through this place.”

Martin also had brief stints with KPIX and KRON4 in the early- to mid-1990s, before returning permanently to KTVU in 1996.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bill Martin (@billmartinktvu)

Indeed, it’s been a tumultuous couple of years for the great titans of the golden age of KTVU news. The legendary Dennis Richmond passed away at the beginning of this month, we also lost his fellow anchor Leslie Griffith in 2022, and of course, there has been that whole Frank Somerville thing.  

And now the retirement of their three-decade meteorologist Bill Martin. But true fans will still be able to catch Bill Martin doing the weather, as he’ll continue doing his daily Bill Martin’s Weather Show on Youtube. Today’s episode is seen below.

Related: Beloved Longtime KTVU Anchorman Dennis Richmond Dies at Age 81 [SFist]

Image via KTVU

Retired KTVU anchor Dennis Richmond, who sat in the anchor chair for the station's popular nightly news broadcast for over 30 years, has died.

Richmond reportedly died Wednesday at age 81 at his home in Grass Valley, California, with his wife Deborah at his side. "She was holding his hand until the end," KTVU reports.

Richmond had suffered a heart attack and a fall in late 2024, and his longtime co-anchor Julie Haener — who just retired last June — visited him in the hospital in December, and tells the station "he was a fighter."

"He held on for as long as he could," Haener tells KTVU. "He was so respected. This news is going to hit people really, really hard."

Dennis Richmond was a fixture on Bay Area televisions from 1976 to 2008, becoming one of the country's first Black journalists to anchor a major market newscast when he took the job. He had first joined the station as a clerk-typist in 1968.

He is also survived by co-anchors Barbara Simpson and Elaine Corral. His former co-anchor Leslie Griffith passed away in 2022.

As Bay Area News Group writes, "Richmond had a calm, no-nonsense demeanor and a rich baritone delivery. Over time, he became one of the Bay Area’s most trusted anchors and was regularly named the market’s most popular anchor in various viewer polls."

As he told the Chronicle in a 2010 interview, talking about covering the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, "People are going to look at you for direction. If you are excited and nervous, they are going to be excited and nervous. You have to be calm."

He added, "I had a marvelous career and outstanding colleagues whom I still love. Anchoring is for the young now. You won’t see any anchors [on air] as old as I was."

After retiring in 2008 and moving to Grass Valley, Richmond returned to the KTVU newscast for a brief segment in 2017 in conjunction with a breast cancer fundraising event. He also surprised Haener last June (see video below), making an on-air appearance to wish her well on her final broadcast.

Former Berkeley Mayor, now state Senator Jesse Arreguin writes on X, "Like so many people in the Bay Area, I fondly remember growing up watching Dennis Richmond on the news. He set the standard for journalistic excellence and integrity, inspiring generations of journalists. He will be greatly missed but never forgotten."

The sad, all-too-public unraveling of former KTVU anchor Frank Somerville appears to be continuing, as he was arrested not once but twice overnight in Berkeley, both times outside a home where his brother lives.

Somerville, 65, whose career at KTVU came to an end in 2021 after three decades of being one of the most recognizable on-air personalities in Bay Area TV journalism, allegedly had an altercation with his brother, Mark Somerville, outside a family home in Berkeley Monday evening.

As the Chronicle reports, Somerville showed up at the house around 6:30 p.m., according to Berkeley police, intending to confront his brother or other family members about "ongoing family issues." Family members said he refused to leave when asked, and one person was left with a contusion to their face. Somerville was subsequently arrested on misdemeanor charges of public intoxication, assault, making criminal threats, and violating probation — the latter charge likely stemming from his December 2021 DUI crash in downtown Oakland.

Somerville was released from jail in Berkeley later that night, then left the area, and then reportedly returned around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing a disturbance and ringing the doorbell at that same family home. Per the Chronicle, he was demanding some sort of belongings, and police once again said he appeared under the influence of some substances.

This time, Berkeley police said they observed Somerville driving while intoxicated, and arrested him on suspicion of DUI and, again, violating his probation.

The saga of Somerville's departure from KTVU began with an on-air incident of apparent intoxication which he blamed on mistaking some Ambien pills for another medication. That was a Sunday night broadcast on Memorial Day Weekend 2021, and after appearing to slur words on camera and have difficulty reading from the teleprompter, Somerville disappeared from the anchor desk and the broadcast was wrapped by Julie Haener.

Somerville was then off the air until August, when he reappeared without any explanation for his departure. He would be removed again, though, within weeks, ostensibly over a disagreement with the station's news director. At the time the station claimed an act of insubordination in which Somerville insisted on bringing up the concept of "Missing White Woman Syndrome" in connection with the national media's coverage of the Gabby Petito disappearance.

Subsequently, Somerville's contract at KTVU was not renewed, and he has given several interviews in the year and a half since his Oakland DUI openly discussing his substance abuse issues.

Most recently, in March, he sat down with KRON4's Pam Moore, and admitted that on that December night in 2021, he "got trashed."

"I mean there’s no other way to say it. I got trashed in my apartment, and I wanted to go to Taco Bell, which is two and a half blocks away from where I live. I made the idiotic decision to drive. I had absolutely no business at all to drive — at all," he said.

Somerville said he hadn't had many drinks in the 15 months following, but admitted to having some beers at a San Jose Sharks game.

Moore pressed him, saying, "You know most experts say if you’re addicted, you should not ever drink any." And Somerville replied, "Yeah, I’m not prepared to say I never will. It’s still a work in progress."

Photo via KTVU

Disgraced former KTVU anchorman Frank Somerville just gave his first full, on-camera interview since the events of 2021 that both tanked his news career and put him in serious legal hot water.

Somerville, who is one of the most recognizable faces in Bay Area TV news, helmed the highest rated local news broadcast, KTVU's 10 O'Clock News, until a weird on-camera incident on Memorial Day Weekend 2021 began a series of troubles, ultimately leading to him losing his longtime job.

Since being seen and heard slurring words and looking dazed on camera during a Sunday night broadcast two years ago, Somerville has repeatedly said that he was not drunk on air, but that he had mistakenly taken two Ambien pills, having mistaken for another medication.

But that explanation seems kind of moot after, a little over six months later, he was involved in a DUI crash in downtown Oakland in which he had a blood alcohol level of 0.24%.

"I got trashed," Somerville now tells KRON4's Pam Moore. "I mean there’s no other way to say it. I got trashed in my apartment, and I wanted to go to Taco Bell, which is two and a half blocks away from where I live. I made the idiotic decision to drive. I had absolutely no business at all to drive — at all."

Somerville, driving a Porsche, rear-ended a car at a stoplight, and then proceeded to ram and push an Audi into a streetlamp pole across the intersection, at relatively slow speed. He now says that he has "absolutely no recollection of the accident."

It's not clear what Somerville hopes to get out of this on-camera appearance — Moore and a camera crew follow him to his gym, show that he's trying to be healthy. He says he's quit drinking, mostly... "The only times I’ve had a drink in the last six to eight months would be when I went to a Sharks game," he says.

Moore presses him a bit, saying, "You know most experts say if you’re addicted, you should not ever drink any."

Somerville replies, "Yeah, I’m not prepared to say I never will. It’s still a work in progress."

He says he was especially sad and lonely that Christmas season in 2021, separated from his spouse and daughters, and he was just trying to "escape." At that point, he was completely off the air at KTVU after an alleged clash with management over a story and comments he made on air. Somerville wanted to highlight the phenomenon of "missing white woman syndrome," and the national media's breathless coverage of the Gabby Petito disappearance, something he was told not to do on air.

"I thought the coverage across the country of Gabby Petito was insane," Somerville tells KRON4. "There was no reason for it other than she was a cute white kid. But for some reason, I was suspended over that. I still, to this day, am not sure why."

If nothing else, Somerville seems to want to show people that he can get in front of a camera again, and he wants for his career not to be over.

He says he'd like a job in the news again, either here in the Bay Area or somewhere else. "I mean that’s what I love, I love what I do. I love anchoring," Somerville says.

Perhaps he hoped that KRON4 might be hiring.

Previously: Former KTVU Anchor Frank Somerville Speaks Publicly About Addiction Issues

We at SFist have long been fans of weatherwoman Roberta Gonzales, who blithely delivered the weather for two decades over at KPIX before apparently being dismissed from/leaving that post in 2017. Mid-pandemic she popped back up doing the weather at KTVU, and there she remains — and we live for the days when she makes the story about her.

During this latest onslaught of storms, Roberta has been out in her rain gear and baseball cap showing us what's what on the roads and in the swollen creeks. Just last week, she donned some hoop earrings and her gear to show us the rising Arroyo de la Laguna stream, which had become a raging river. And she made sure to let us know that she was standing next to what's usually her jogging path over the stream.

Yesterday, KTVU sent Roberta down to see the mudslide on Highway 17 — and you can tell by her sly grin that she lives for drama like this.

And she has been notably excited about the rain.

Today, we learn of Roberta's near brush with fate after she witnessed a jackknifed and toppled big rig crash on I-880 on the morning of December 30. KTVU reports that Roberta was on her way to work at the station that morning around 2 a.m., driving northbound on I-880, when she realized she'd forgotten to perform her morning ritual of saying a prayer in her driveway to keep her family safe. A devout Catholic (and clearly a bit superstitious), Roberta turned around and went back home to do her blessing — we learn also that she is a Eucharist minister at her church, St. Augustine Catholic Church in Pleasanton. And then when she got back on the road, she ended up being the first car behind the truck that crashed.

Per KTVU, via Roberta, "the driver of a big rig drove past her at about 62 mph on I-880 at High Street in Oakland, splashing water and debris all over her car. He hit another car and overturned, wedging his rig along the center divide. The roads were slick and the sky was dark... Plastic bits and metal shards flew into the air right at her. But she wasn't hit and neither she nor her car suffered any damage."

Roberta then called in to say she would not be making it in, but to send a camera crew out to her. She also reportedly went to the aid of one of the drivers involved in the crash, who had a bloody knee, and called 911.

"Her mother had always reminded her that she wouldn't be remembered for being the best meteorologist in the world; she'd be remembered for being a great humanitarian and philanthropist," says KTVU/Roberta. But then she got to reporting live from the freeway next to her undamaged car, right in the center of the action.

This is all to say that we are so glad to have Roberta Gonzales back on our TVs on the regular, and we can't wait for her to be back doing the weather on a normal day in a well fitted, color-blocked dress, chatting about whatever. (Remember when, just before the pandemic, she went on KPIX to talk about the children's book she'd just published titled "Marina the Fish with Teal Lips"?!)

Below, see KPIX's Brian Hackney marking the day that Roberta celebrated 20 years at KTVU (back in 2016), and airing a clip from when she became his replacement doing the weather at KSBY back in the 80s.

Previously: Iconic Former SF Weatherwoman Roberta Gonzales Publishes Children's Book About a Fish

Bay Area news viewers from the 1990s and early 2000s have lost a longtime favorite, as former anchor Leslie Griffith’s family announced she passed away at her home in Mexico on Wednesday.

Most of us who remember Leslie Griffith on the KTVU news recall her eight-year stint alongside Dennis Richmond, a pairing that was a local ratings giant and regularly bested its competitors. But Griffith had been a reporter for the station for nearly 15 years prior, making her a familiar and trusted face, and earlier in her career, a reporter for the Denver Post and then the Associated Press.

And most of us who remember Leslie Griffith will be saddened to hear that she died Wednesday after a seven-year battle with Lyme disease — though as the Chronicle notes, a family member said it was "unclear" whether the disease contributed to her death. She was 66.  

KTVU presented the above retrospective of Griffith’s career Wednesday, speaking to many of her recognizable former colleagues. “She has this really strong powerful voice,” said former KTVU reporter John Sasaki. “It’s one of those voices you always connect with, Elaine Corral is another one, Dennis Richmond is another one, these people were kind of legendary at the KTVU family.”

Griffith took over as co-anchor when Elaine Corral left the station in 1998. Griffith would go on to become one of Richmond’s longest-serving co-anchors, for the eight years from 1998 to 2006.

And while Bay Area viewers trusted the even-handed delivery of KTVU’s highly rated Ten O’Clock News, there was certainly drama behind the scenes. Drama is what elevated Griffith to the anchor seat, when her predecessor Elaine Corral abruptly resigned on the air in 1998, stunning her colleagues. Griffith became a local legend in the seat, though in the early days of SFist, we developed an obsession with her in Where’s Leslie? columns, when it turned out she too was frustrated in her role at the station.

She left KTVU in 2006, and had a brief stint with the Chronicle, even establishing the Leslie R. Griffith Woman of Courage Scholarship to foster young women into journalism.

Per KTVU, “Griffith is survived by her two daughters, Trenton and Carly, an adopted son Eric, and two grandchildren.”

Related: Catching Up with Former KTVU Anchor Leslie Griffith [SFist]

Image: KTVU

Following a strange year that included an on-camera slurring incident, an unexplained absence from the air, a backstage battle with a producer over racially biased coverage of missing-persons cases, and then a very public DUI incident, local anchorman Frank Somerville has been officially replaced at KTVU.

It was clear when KTVU let Somerville's contract expire earlier this year that he had no future at the station. And now, longtime KTVU anchor Mike Mibach, who's been anchoring Mornings on 2 for a number of years, will officially be the new weeknight anchor alongside Julie Haener starting next week, on May 2. The Chronicle first reported the news, and the Marin Independent Journal reports that staffers at KTVU News were informed of Mibach's promotion in a Zoom meeting on Wednesday.

Mibach will be at the anchor desk for the channels 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 10 p.m., and 11 p.m. broadcasts — with KTVU's 10 O'Clock News long holding the title of the Bay Area's highest rated newscast. KGO (ABC 7) oftens beats out KTVU for its early evening newscasts.

KTVU news director Amber Eikel said in a release that Mibach is a "dedicated storyteller who cares deeply about the community and our role as journalists in the Bay Area."

And Mibach has now issued his own statement, saying, "KTVU has been a part of my life for nearly five decades; from growing up in the Bay Area as a viewer, and for the last 17 years as a reporter and anchor. It’s an absolute honor to be trusted to deliver stories in a way that continues the legacy of journalistic excellence for which KTVU has always been known."

In his station bio, Mibach says he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he studied broadcast journalism, and he was later accepted into the graduate program in journalism, which he graduated from in 2000. While he was born and raised in the Bay Area and his parents were both native San Franciscans, Mibach began his TV career as a photographer at WIBW in Topeka, Kansas, and then as a reporter and then anchor at KVOA in Tucson, Arizona, before being hired at KTVU in 2005.

Mibach is married with two kids and he coaches youth sports. "I love my 49ers and SF Giants, and heading up to Lake Tahoe," he writes. "I enjoy relaxing on the beaches along the Marin and Sonoma coasts and the trails up on Mt. Tam."

Somerville took over the anchor desk from longtime KTVU fixture Dennis Richmond when Richmond retired in 2008. Somerville had been with the station since 1991.

On the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend in 2021, Somerville went on air at 10 p.m. sounding clearly impaired, slurring words and appearing to have trouble reading from the teleprompter. He later told a reporter that the reason was that he mistakenly took an Ambien pill before the broadcast, believing it was something else.

But that explanation seems a little dodgy in retrospect. Somerville returned to the air briefly in August without explanation of his three-month absence, and then was officially suspended in late September, ostensibly for insubordination in some argument with Eikel over coverage of the Gabby Petito case — Somerville, who is the father of a daughter of color, wanted to give on-air context about the nationwide coverage of Petito's disappearance, which was widely seen as an example of "missing white woman syndrome" in the media. Then just before New Year's Eve in December, Somerville was arrested for a DUI in downtown Oakland in which he appeared to rear-end another car with his Porsche and then push it into a light pole. No one was injured in the incident.

Somerville was officially charged with the DUI in early April. His lawyer put out a statement at the time saying that Somerville was "attending meetings and working on himself. So, nothing like this happens again."

Previously: KTVU Anchorman Frank Somerville Arrested In Suspected DUI Crash In Downtown Oakland

Seven months after a slurring on-air performance that he attributed to mistakenly taking Ambien, and three months after he was abruptly taken off the air a second time, KTVU anchor Frank Somerville was arrested Thursday night after allegedly rear-ending a car in a downtown Oakland intersection and then pushing that car into a pole.

As NBC Bay Area reports, Somerville was arrested and booked into Santa Rita Jail Thursday on suspicion of diving under the influence.

The crash occurred around 7:45 p.m. at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Broadway. Video from the scene shows a dark blue Porsche, identified as Somerville's, pushing another vehicle through the intersection and into a utility pole.

Somerville's car allegedly collided with the other vehicle first, after which the driver of that vehicle got out of their car, and then the Porsche can be seen pushing the other car into the pole.

Somerville has been on the anchor desk at KTVU since 2008, and he's worked for the station since 1991. His future at the station has been in doubt since he disappeared from the 10 O'Clock News broadcast in late September. At the time, it was reported that he had been suspended by management over a disagreement over coverage of the Gabby Petito case — and many fans came to Somerville's defense, given that he was arguing that news outlets gave disproportionate coverage to the disappearances of attractive young white women, a phenomenon that late PBS news reporter Gwen Ifill coined "missing white woman syndrome," despite many missing persons cases involving people of color going unreported.

But it seemed then and earlier that there was more going in Somerville's dispute with the station. Over Memorial Day Weekend, Somerville appeared visibly out-of-sorts during the nightly broadcast, and had trouble reading from his teleprompters. He was abruptly removed from the air, which concluded without him, and he disappeared from the air without official explanation until mid-August.

Somerville's contract was reportedly up in the new year, and it seemed likely the station was waiting out that expiration.

Previously: Frank Somerville Speaks, Says He's Likely Out at KTVU

Longtime KTVU anchor Frank Somerville, who's been off the air since being suspended by management in September over a disagreement about the coverage of the Gabby Petito case, is speaking out and telling the press that he doesn't expect he'll be back at the station — and also, no one from the station or Fox has even bothered contacting him.

Somerville spoke this morning to local media hound Rich Lieberman — who said Somerville was speaking to him exclusively but very quickly Somerville gave quotes to the Mercury News and the Chronicle — saying that he's all but certain he won't ever be at the anchor desk again at KTVU.

"No one at the station — Fox/KTVU — has contacted me. So, I'm assuming I've done my last newscast," Somerville said. He noted that his contract is up in January, so it seems like the management is just waiting that out.

What Somerville did that was so wrong is less clear. Earlier this year, Somerville disappeared from the air without explanation after a fairly strange Memorial Day Weekend broadcast in which he was slurring words and seemed unable to read the teleprompter. Somerville later excused that saying he had mistakenly taken an Ambien before going on the air.

But he wouldn't be back on the air until August, and then within weeks, this controversy erupted behind the scenes about the Petito case. Somerville, who has a mixed-race daughter, wanted to make a statement at the end of a segment regarding "missing white woman syndrome," a term coined by the late Gwen Ifill about American media's obsession with the disappearance of young, pretty Caucasian women, when very little national attention is given to the thousands of people of color who go missing every year.

Reportedly, Somerville butted heads with KTVU News Director Amber Eikel over the addition of this "tag" that Somerville wanted to say on air, with Eikel saying that the topic deserved separate coverage at a later date. But a shortened version of the tag made it into the script for that evening's broadcast, which allegedly prompted Somerville's suspension for insubordination.

Following the suspension and subsequent social media attention, two rallies were held in support of Somerville outside KTVU headquarters in Oakland. These rallies were followed by the City of San Leandro issuing an official proclamation honoring Somerville "for speaking out about missing women of color and setting an example of strength and equity to our community and those worldwide."

Now, though, Somerville appears to be putting it out there that he's looking for a job.

"I still want to continue working,” Somerville tells the Mercury News. “I would love to work at one of the other stations in the market. If not, I’ll go to other stations outside of the market."

He adds, "It makes me really sad, because I’ve given 31 years to the station. I helped make ‘Mornings on 2’ the No. 1 newscast in the market. I also helped make the noon and 5 p.m. newscasts No. 1."

"My guess is that I’m not coming back to Channel 2,” Somerville tells the Chronicle. “That’s just a guess. But I have no reason to think otherwise."

Neither Fox nor KTVU has made any official statement on the matter.

In related news, CNN is reckoning with its Petito coverage and just took up a local missing-persons case involving Arianna Fitts, a Bay Area girl who is black, and who went missing in 2016 at the age of 2. She'd now be 8 years old, and her case got little national attention at the time and she remains unaccounted for.

Previously: Anchorman Frank Somerville's Future at KTVU In Doubt As Rumors Swirl About High Drama In the Newsroom

One of the Bay Area's most recognizable TV news personalities, Frank Somerville, could be contemplating an exit from the station he has called home for three decades. But how this drama will play out is still anyone's guess.

News of Somerville's suspension at KTVU spread rapidly across social media over the weekend, in large part because the action seemed unjustified in the eyes of many fans. The reason, as the Mercury News reports via inside sources, was an argument that Somerville got into with station brass — reportedly News Director Amber Eikel — over a "tagline" he wanted to give after reporting on the murder of Gabby Petito in Wyoming. Somerville had wanted to address what many on social media and elsewhere had been discussing — what the late PBS news reporter Gwen Ifill coined "missing white woman syndrome — in the wake of the national frenzy of coverage of Petito's case. Somerville, who has an adoptive daughter of color, wanted to say something about the many missing persons cases involving people of color that go un- or under-reported every years.

Eikel allegedly suggested that this subject deserved more complete coverage, and did not belong in just a 46-second tagline. She was then reportedly angry to learn that an edited, 26-second version had made it into the news script last week, but was then cut and Somerville obeyed orders, as the Chronicle reports, but the following day he was informed he was being suspended indefinitely from the station.

Local media blogger Rich Lieberman, who had previously been in touch with Somerville during his June and July suspension — following a bizarre Memorial Day Weekend newscast in which he slurred words and seemed to have difficulty reading from the teleprompter — noted last week that Somerville's disappearance from the anchor desk followed another "shaky" broadcast last Tuesday night in which he appeared visibly tense or distracted.

Somerville returned to the anchor desk without any comment or explanation about his nine-week absence in early August, and neither Fox nor KTVU commented on it either.

Now, Lieberman is saying he believes Somerville and the station are all but certainly headed for "divorce." And Lieberman has some choice inside rumors about the newsroom overall, and about co-anchor Julie Haener's alleged fatigue with all the drama.

KTVU's "10 O'Clock News" is the most-watched news broadcast in the Bay Area, and Somerville is typically anchoring from Sunday to Thursday night. He took over the anchor seat from Bay Area legend Dennis Richmond in 2008, when Richmond retired, and Somerville has been on the air at the station since 1991.

The Mercury News also notes that Somerville has a far larger following on Facebook than Haener or any of his colleagues, with 600,000 followers. Julie Haener has 6,800 followers on Instagram and 33,000 on Facebook.

Somerville has not yet commented on the suspension. Lieberman surmises that he'd be snapped up in a heartbeat by KPIX, whose news ratings have been in decline.

Related: Longtime KTVU Anchor Frank Somerville Returns After Abrupt Departure With No Explanation

After a strange May 30 newscast in which he slurred words and seemed to lose the ability to read from the teleprompter, longtime KTVU anchor disappeared from the air to "focus on his health," and he reappeared with no explanation of his absence on Wednesday night's "10 O'Clock News."

Fans of Somerville's expressed relief and happiness about his return in replies to an unrelated post he put on Facebook on Wednesday before the broadcast, which was about his daughter starting her senior year in high school. It was his first post since May 26.

But, as the East Bay Times reports, neither the station nor Somerville himself have publicly addressed the elephant in the room, which is the reason for his alarming behavior that night in May and why he took a nine-week leave of absence. A spokesperson for Fox earlier said, "We can confirm Frank is taking time away from the desk to focus on his health and we welcome his return when he is ready."

When asked about Somerville in a Facebook comment on her own page recently, co-anchor Julie Haener didn't offer much. But when asked if he was sick, she said, "No he’s doing well … taking a little time for himself and should be back soon!"

Local media gadfly Rich Lieberman said in a June blog post that he'd texted with Somerville right after the incident and Somerville claimed he had mistakenly taken an Ambien before going on air, and it was just a silly mistake. Over a month later, Liberman said, Somerville stopped returning his texts.

The fans on Facebook aren't asking too many questions, and are just welcoming Somerville back. He's been a fixture on Bay Area news since 1991, and has been in the anchor seat at KTVU since 2008, following the retirement of Dennis Richmond.

"The 10 O'Clock News" on KTVU remains the Bay Area's highest-rated news broadcast.

As one fan writes, I’m soooo happy to see you back anchoring the news! Life has returned back to normal! Glad your health is ok and whatever you were going through."

Below, the infamous broadcast, which finished with Haener alone at the anchor desk.