#ktvu

Guest speaker Christine Baranski at the Newsmakers: Lesher Speaker Series.

Lesher Center for the Arts | Walnut Creek, CA | October 28, 2025

*********************************************

Bay Area anchor Frank Somerville reportedly 'suspended indefinitely' by KTVU

KTVU news anchor Frank Somerville has again been removed from the air, as first reported by the Mercury News and confirmed by a source at KTVU who spoke to SFGATE.

Somerville, 63, has been “suspended indefinitely” by KTVU management following a disagreement over ongoing coverage of the Gabby Petito missing person and homicide case.

According to the source, the conflict with Somerville came to a head when the body of Petito was discovered in Wyoming earlier this week, after she had been reported missing while on a cross-country camping trip with her fiancé. The FBI has issued an arrest warrant for Petito’s 23-year-old fiancé, Brian Laundrie, and he is considered a prime suspect in her suspected homicide.

The search for Petito has sparked a nationwide media frenzy, though some in the journalism industry, most prominently MSNBC’s Joy Reid, have argued the attention it has received as undue. Reid is among those who believe coverage of Petito’s disappearance is an example of the media phenomenon late journalist and broadcaster Gwen Ifill described as “missing White woman syndrome,” during which the media provides a lopsided focus on missing white women and girls without providing equal coverage for similar cases of missing women of color.

Somerville, who is the father of a Black adopted daughter, shared these beliefs, desiring to add a brief tagline critiquing the extraordinary media coverage Petito’s story had garnered at the end of a planned straight news report updating the details of the case, according to the source. 

Somerville asked to include a less-than-30-second sidebar as an addendum to the story with additional facts and statistics that showed Black women in America experience higher rates of domestic violence than white women in America, according to the source.

His request was denied by KTVU news director Amber Eikel, who said the tagline was inappropriate and questioned Somerville’s news judgement to link the story to domestic violence before any suspects were convicted. Somerville allegedly was informed by station management of his “indefinite suspension” the next day.

Somerville had been attempting to raise the issue of providing additional context and statistics to the story since Petito’s disappearance first breached public consciousness roughly one month ago but was continually rebuffed by others in the newsroom, according to the source.

The suspension comes weeks after Somerville returned to KTVU airwaves following an unexplained nine-week absence from the station’s “The Ten O’Clock News” show. Immediately prior to his summer absence, Somerville repeatedly slurred and tripped over his words while reading off a teleprompter during a May 30 newscast.

The source did not know how long the suspension will last, or whether Somerville will return to KTVU airwaves before his contract expires in March.

Contact info in case you’re interested.

KTVU FOX 2 & KTVU Plus

2 Jack London Square, Oakland, CA 94607

MAIN LINE: (510) 834-1212

NEWSROOM: (510) 874-0242

For general questions and comments about newscasts, email [email protected]

Facebook

https://m.facebook.com/ktvu/

Twitter

@ktvu

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/ktvu2/?hl=en

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVhtkN7-c8mA8GXEoxS4YQw