Lori Stokes

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Lori Stokes (born 1962) is co-anchor of Eyewitness News This Morning and Eyewitness News at Noon on WABC-TV in New York City. She joined the station on April 17, 2000 as part of an effort to increase ratings on WABC's morning newscast.

She was paired with Robb Hanrahan who, at the time, also co-anchored the station's 5 p.m. news with Roz Abrams and had previously co-anchored the morning news. The new pair, who replaced anchors Nancy Loo and David Ushery, did not work as well as WABC had hoped they would. Hanrahan was taken off the morning news in December 2000 and replaced with WABC's weekend sports anchor Steve Bartelstein.

Stokes and Bartelstein proved to work well and eventually helped bring Eyewitness News This Morning back to the number one position it had enjoyed in previous years. The pair eventually took over anchoring duties for Eyewitness News at Noon, replacing Nancy Loo and David Ushery once again.

For a brief time in 2003, Stokes was removed from the noon newscast and replaced with Sade Baderinwa. Stokes resumed anchoring the noon newscast when Roz Abrams left the station and was replaced by Sade Baderinwa. Stokes has also filled in for Robin Roberts as the newsreader on Good Morning America.

On October 19, 2006, Stokes appeared on The View as a guest co-host.

As of Tuesday, March 13, 2007, Stokes is the primary anchor of Eyewitness News This Morning and Eyewitness News at Noon. She is joined by a rotating roster of co-anchors until one is found to permanently replace Steve Bartelstein.

Stokes came to WABC-TV from MSNBC in 2000 where she was one of the original anchors on the 24-hour cable news channel when they hired newcomer "girl in glasses" Ashleigh Banfield to MSNBC in 2000 and replaced Stokes on MSNBC'S Today in America also in 2000. During Stokes tenure at NBC News Stokes was a rotating newsreader for Weekend Today.

Lori Stokes is the daughter of former U.S. Congressman Louis Stokes and the niece of politician and journalist Carl Stokes. She has two children by her former husband, WNBC reporter Brian Thompson.