| Leslie Roberts | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1962 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Occupation | News anchor, Radio broadcaster |
Leslie Roberts (born 1962) is a Canadian journalist and TV personality, primarily from his position as the executive editor and anchor for Global Ontario's News Hour from 5:30-6:30 p.m. He also anchors the GTA's only one hour local news at 11pm. He was also the host and successor to Bill Carroll's 10 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. shift on CFRB Radio in Toronto. He also formerly authored a weekly column from April to October 2008 for the National Post named "The Five things I learned this week". In 2011, he received a Gemini Award nomination for Canada's Best News Anchor.
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Roberts was raised in a family full of journalists. Roberts' great-grandfather John H. Roberts founded and ran a controversial reformist Montreal tabloid newspaper called The Axe,[1] between 1922–24 and his grandfather and namesake was a writer and journalist, while his father (Bill) was a morning-man for Montreal's CJAD for 20 years. His mother was an assistant to a federal MP. Roberts' brother, Rob, is Toronto editor at one of Canada's major newspapers, The National Post.[1]
At 18, Roberts interned in the newsroom at Montreal's CKGM Radio, specifically covering the 1980 Quebec referendum and having the opportunity to interview René Lévesque. After finishing school, he was immediately recruited in 1985 as a medical reporter for CFCF-TV, the CTV affiliate in Montreal. At CFCF for twelve years, Roberts found himself on a variety of different segments from travel to morning talk shows.[1]
In 1995, a tape of an interview he conducted on his Morning TV show Montreal Today With Leslie Roberts landed on the desk of an agent in Los Angeles. Within six months he was offered a position with the TV tabloid show A Current Affair. A year later he moved to Fox as a reporter/anchor for WNYW in New York City. Three years later Roberts answered a call from CFCF to return home as anchor/host of several shows. In 2000, The Global Television Network came calling. He was news director and senior anchor at Global Quebec until Global offered a position on the anchor desk in Toronto.[1]
He hosted The Leslie Roberts Show from 10 a.m. to noon on CFRB.[1] Adult listeners of The Leslie Roberts Show increased 40.2% in the Fall BBM Ratings. Female listeners of the show aged 25–54 increased 174% in the Winter BBM Ratings.
In September 2001, Leslie was recruited by CanWest's Toronto division to be a co-anchor with Beverly Thomson. Roberts arrived just a week before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.[2] The news team included meteorologist Michael Kuss (now at CTV) and sports director Jim Tatti. In 2009, Roberts continues working at News Hour on Global. His previous co-anchor was Anne-Marie Mediwake. As of June 2010 his co-anchor is former CITY-TV Anchor Anne Mroczkowski.