CHICAGO – July 26, 2021 – This fall, WGN-TV will be launching an hour-long lifestyle show “Daytime Chicago” in the 10am slot; “Rachel Ray” will be moving to later in the afternoon. Co-hosts Tonya Francisco and Amy Rutledge will be hosting the weekday lifestyle and entertainment show, which will cover various topics specific to Chicagoans, with features on health, décor, cooking, travel and more. The show will debut this September.
“We are very excited to launch more local programming for our viewers. With “Daytime Chicago” five-days-a-week, WGN-TV will soon be airing 81 hours of weekly live local programming,” commented Paul Rennie, WGN-TV VP/General Manager. “Tonya and Amy are Chicago’s Very Own seasoned veterans who know our market inside and out; they will be a fantastic duo.”
Tonya Francisco, an award-winning journalist, joined WGN News in 2012 and currently anchors WGN Weekend Morning News. Prior to that, Tonya was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor for WGN-TV. She joined CLTV in 2002 and was soon after named morning anchor. Tonya is proud alumna of Whitney Young Magnet High School and a graduate of the University of Illinois Chicago. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the National Association of Black Journalists.
Amy Rutledge, an award-winning journalist, spent many years as a reporter at WGN-TV, starting in 2005. She took a brief break from Chicago and moved to Shanghai, China, where she helped launch Shanghai’s first and only English-speaking newscast. In April 2010, she came back to Chicago and WGN-TV. Most recently, she was a co-host of “The Jam,” a morning entertainment show on WCIU. Amy is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale with a B.A. in Mass Communications/Media Arts. She also studied meteorology at Mississippi State University. She was born and raised in Schaumburg, Illinois and is a graduate of Schaumburg High School.
WGN-TV is Chicago’s Very Own source for news and entertainment, and is owned and operated by Nexstar Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group Inc. WGN News programs more local news than any other Chicago TV station and can be seen on WGN-TV, WGNTV.com and the WGN-TV News mobile app. In-depth local weather is available on all newscasts and the WGN-TV Weather app. WGN 9.2 is Chicago’s home of Nexstar Inc.’s classic TV network, Antenna TV. WGN 9.3 is Chicago’s Court TV network affiliate and WGN 9.4 carries TBD, bringing the world of internet video to the TV screen. For more information on Chicago’s Very Own WGN-TV, go to WGNTV.com