Know Your Local Asian Newscasters
By Ron - Friday November 11th 2005
In the beginning there was Connie Chung. After breaking out on LA’s local news scene, Connie’s rise to national prominence paved the way for the likes of Tritia Toyota, Wendy Tokuda and Sharon Tay. Today, every local TV news team in Los Angeles enforces a strict two Asian minimum. Let’s get to know our current crop of Asian newscasters…
CBS/KCAL
| Lisa Joyner Entertainment Reporter/ Host  In her bio, Lisa explains that she’s a journalist because it beats working. And her favorite sports team is the Pussycat Dolls. |
Mia Lee Anchor  In the Japanamation flick Kaitou Saint Tail, Mia is the voice of Meimi, a girl who turns into a magical thief at night and steals stuff with the help of a nun in training. |
| Leyna Nguyen Anchor/Reporter  Leyna was 1987’s Miss Asia and often leverages her talents for newscaster roles in shitty films. |
NBC
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Ted Chen Anchor/Reporter  Ted was second assistant director for the vampire thriller Sleepless Nights. Who can forget this film’s classic tagline: Those lips at your throat… may not be your lover’s? |
Gordon Tokumatsu Reporter  It’s common for aspiring White entertainers to Anglocize their names to appeal to a wider audience. But if you’re going to make it as a non-White performer you need to take the opposite approach and market the shit out of your ethnicity. And thus Gordon Gray became Gordon Tokumatsu. |
ABC
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Denise Dador Anchor/Health Specialist  Denise is a health specialist with no formal medical training. Maybe this mean Eyewitness news will accept my application to be their newschopper pilot. |
Rob Fukuzaki Sports  Rob wrote and recorded musical tributes to Tommy Lasorda and former Dodger Raul Mondesi. If anyone has a copy of either of these songs please contact me immediately. |
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Jane Monreal Traffic  Jane was crowned Miss Asian America Florida and was a competitive Latin ballroom and salsa dancer. Unlike former beauty queen Leyna Nguyen, Jane has yet to be cast as a TV news reporter in a shitty film. |
David Ono Anchor  David is a triathlete sponsored by PowerBar’s Team Elite even though he can’t swim nearly as well as he can move on land. |
KTLA
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Cher Calvin Morning Anchor  KTLA didn’t approve of chercalvin.com and instituted a ban on personal Web sites by on-air talent. An early version of the site remains archived so you can still check out Cher’s shout-outs, linkz and her section for webmasterz. |
Janet Choi Reporter  Janet was a cast member on MTV’s Real World Seattle. In one episode she compared sex to avocados and then explained that she’s tried sex but not avocados. |
FOX
| Susan Hirasuna Weekend Anchor/Reporter  Susan is often asked to act as mistress of ceremonies for local community events. She is rarely confused with Elvira, mistress of local dark community events. |
Jane Yamamoto Reporter  Jane is an avid golfer who wants everyone to know her handicap is 9. Everyone wants Jane to know that nobody likes a braggart. |
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Tricia Takasugi Reporter  Tricia doesn’t get a bio. Bios are for closers. |
Maria Quiban Weather  Maria dated Jim Carrey, was a teen mom and plays the ukelele. These three facts are not necessarily related. |
| Tricia Takanawa Reporter  Although based in Quahog, Rhode Island, Tricia Takanawa is perhaps the most popular Asian reporter in Los Angeles. She was once eaten alive by her anchors. |
I love Kristen Sze
Where is Jane Monreal? I miss watching her and seeing what shoes she was wearing.
Yes, she is Asian. She comes up in all types of websites geared towards the Asian community. I even read that she was crowned Miss Asian America Florida. I imagine it’s the same Jane Monreal formally from Channel 7 news.
Kristen Sze is up in the bay area on channel 7 ABC. She anchors morning and noon. She is gorgeous. We belong to the same health club and I see her once in a while there…very very desireable.
Maria Quiban is super super beautiful. MAHAL KITA! mwah mwah mwah. I want to marry you but you travel too much!
Please Please Maria-Tell me your secret. My boyfriend is madly in love with you! I want him to love me NOT you! wah wah wah!
Jillian Barbarie,reynolds,troll,scank or whatever her name is, must be the nastiest crackhead racoon faced pig in the world. Fox needs to fire her now. I love good day L.A. when she is not apart of it. She offers nothing, to the news or as a human. I feel sorry for her children and gay husband…
I am in love with Maria Quiban! I love how when she is talking about the weather, she rubs her thighs and hips. I would like to rub those thighs and hips with some rainbow sherbert ice cream and lick the juice off those hawaiian legs.
I am SHOCKED…a sexist comment on the internet this is unheard of besides the idea of rainbow sherbert is riduculous everyone knows you use whipped cream for this sort of activity
Newsfan & Other critics of Mia Lee:
I’m not sure what happened to my previous note regarding Mia Lee; it seems to have disappeared. Perhaps it’s because I’m one of a minority defending her. For one,she does an adequate presentation of the news but more importantly, I find her extremely attractive judged not only by her usual appearance on Ch.9, but from other photos of her on various websites. (See her flickr photo if you’re not convinced!)
Some women are beautiful(Grace Kelley), some are sexy(Brittany Spears)but some are both(Angela Jolie).I think Mia fits in the last category regardless of how she may have augmented her natural beauty (not unusual for ambitious celebrities these days). Her personality,including her mannerisms, and a natural emotional response as she interacts with her colleagues, all add to her physical beauty as I see it. I find it hard to understand all the negative comments about her. The only minor negative comment I would have about her is that she seems to have lost a bit of weight in the past few months making her beautiful face and arms a bit thin.
Regarding the opening statement on this page,
I think that it was Tritia Toyota who paved the way.
Saw Mia Lee the other night… she’s gone from scary to FRIGHTFUL! Yikes! Just can’t bear the agony of her face…tell her to quit going underneath the knife/needle or what the heck ever!!! And what is with the weird tan?!?! Not sure if that was natural or a bad, bad selection of self-tanner… Oh and btw, can anyone tell me why the heck did she hook up with Don Corsini??? After he had Tawny Little, she settled for a guy with the fever??? It’s a continual downward spiral…
Panda Girl,
How did you find out Mia Lee is engaged to Don Corsini? I knew they had been dating and there were rumors of her getting married but I couldn’t find any info on the engagement.
Incidentally, there are very good reasons for Don “hooking up” with Mia and her with him. Though a little on the thin side, she is still one of the most beautiful women on t.v. despite whatever cosmetic surgery she had done (as noted in my previous comment above). There are few men who would NOT want to make love to her. Sigh . . .!
Gadfly
Gadfly,
Please get laid soon.
Sincerely,
Your penis.
PS. Please moisturize your right hand when you continue to fantasize about tv anchors. It’s getting ROUGH, so please, forget Mia Lee cuz there’s Carlos Amezcua.
Gadfly,
I would make passionate love to Mia. No matter what she has done she is still Mia Lee that made all the teen boys pray she leaned over the desk or cross her legs high. Mia looks like she needs to get laid. I’m the type of guy to make her feel good about herself.
[...] Un concepto que se maneja en televisión es el de Token Minority, se emplea cuando se introduce un personaje perteneciente a algún tipo de minoría en una serie o programa de televisión (o en cualquier otro ámbito dela sociedad americana, no se trata de un concepto televisivo), así de este modo tenemos un personaje muy típico como es el de reportera de televisión que a menudo suele corresponder con una mujer de origen asiático, los 2 ejemplos que podemos tener son el de Trisha Takanawa de Family Guy (aquí Seth McFarlane juega precisamente con el tópico haciendo que los presentadores de las noticias se refieran a ella como “Asian Reporter Trisha Takanawa” como si su étnia fuera un factor tan definitorio para su trabajo como su condición de reportera) y el de Tricia Tanaka, la reportera que va a entrevistar a Hugo en Lost y muere aplastada por un meteorito (ver episodio s03e10 “Tricia Tanaka is dead”) los paralelismos entre ambos personajes son obvios, seguramente el personaje de la segunda sea un guiño al de la primera, también se dice que Trisha Takanawa a su vez es una referencia a 2 personajes reales, periodistas asiáticas ambas: Tritia Toyota y Tricia Takasugi (más reporter@s asiátic@s aquí) [...]
Mia Lee’s just don’t quit turning me on!
Kimi Evans was wearing a pink blouse and a tight greay skirt tonight. WOW! I’m pretty sure she’s like to give me a spanking!
Is David Ono really that handsome in person? In his pictures and on tv, he’s absolutely gorgeous, probably one of the best looking men I have ever seen. But sometimes when you meet someone in person, they are disappointing, so just wondering
It appears Mia got married last week and is out at KCAL. Dumb move by CBS. I expect to see her at KTLA soon,
Your post is very intriguing Aztek. I understand that Maria Quiban just came back from her honeymoon. And Elita Loresca was sporting a very large ring this morning while showing off her tight body. Are all the asian hotties getting married? Please save yourself for me Sharon Tay.
is Mia lee really gone from KCAL? Damn she will be missed . hell i miss her already! she was one of the main reasons i watched Kcal news at 2 pm sometimes.that explains why she has not been on the KCal 9 news all this month yet i’m happy for her getting married hope hes a keeper.i’m Still looking hot girls like her around.
I like David Ono on KABC channel 7 in Los Angeles.
Does anyone know if he’s full Japanese, or only 1/2? I say 1/2, as he doesn’t look full Japanese??
Hi Karenmama,
David Ono is half japanese half white (not sure if Irish, Scottish, english?), David used to go by his father’s last name Johnston but changed it to his mother’s maiden name “Ono” to give him more of a competitive edge and it worked out well for him. I read that in an article, I also figure him to be about 46 years old, he’s quite a looker isn’t he?
Yes, Mia Lee has left Kcal9 tv, whether by choice or decree I don’t know. I find it strange nothing has been said about her disappearance by Kcal 9 as though she never existed there. All I know is she married some time in September. Does anyone have any info on what happened to her? I find it hard to believe she has retired completely from reporting or t.v.
There was a rumor she would be going to KTLA (Ch.5) but I have seen no evidence of that. I suspect all the negative publicity she had on the internet might have had something to do with her disappearance most of which was ugly and unfair; some kind of conspiracy against her it seems.
I miss your (.Y.) Mia Lee! Please come back to the my TV!
I miss ya too Mia Lee i miss how she would simply melt my heart cutie in the afternoons. i really don’t watch kcal news at 2pm anymore that replacement sandy mitchell is soooo boring!well at least susan hirasuna is still at Fox11 new L.A. at the moment..
I would love pictures of irginia
Cha
backontrack1961@peoplepc.com
KCAL is falling apart now that Mia is gone. They’re getting rid of the “NewsCentral” thing and I’m sure the Noon, 2 & 3 newscasts ratings have dropped. I’d expect them to replace Sandra with a babe who can sell news and sex.
Mia, come back to TV. Old Don won’t love you like I can. I miss you Mama Mia!
Rachel Kim isn’t bad either.
Mia Lee
OMG what a Lousy newscaster. She cannot read.
always getting things wrong.
I e-mailed many times to get her fired.
She smiles at the wrong time and when things
could get no worse ,her implants !!!
WHY???? if she’s so great.
Ugh!!!!!!!!
Ginger Chan cleans up so nice they have her doing traffic in the studio instead of standing in a rain coat covering the odd drizzle.
She’d make a nice update to this site.
Sharon Tay needs more attention here as well. We’re the same age and it seems she has focused enitely on making tons of money (presumably) rather than land a man (anyone she wants or wanted, at least) and have some kids. Tsk, tsk. Shades of a less successful Connie Chung.
PS – I think they made Sharon take her site down because it is so bad. Reminds me of the first site I developed with MS FrontPage ‘97 back in, well, 1997.
Maria Quiban has really been engorging my pineapple as of late. Those sun dresses she has been wearing latley have been fantastic. And she has been more flirty with the camera. I love it!
How did Connie Chung pave the way for Tritia Toyota? Did you do any research?