Tawny Little Will Be Reteamed With Jerry Dunphy on KCAL

Veteran KABC-TV Channel 7 anchor Tawny Little will move to KCAL-TV Channel 9 to rejoin her former colleague Jerry Dunphy on the 10 p.m. newscast beginning in early April.

“I can’t wait,” Little said. “Working with Jerry was nothing but a pleasure. I’m constantly dazzled by how well he does his homework.”

Little was a news anchor at KABC from 1978 to 1984, interrupting her news career for a few months to try her hand at acting. Nonetheless, she remained under contract to KABC as a news personality for all of the past 15 years, and she rejoined Dunphy on the KABC evening newscasts in 1986.

Bob Henry, KCAL vice president and director of news, said that Little replaces KCAL anchor Kate Sullivan, who left the station in December to live in Washington, D.C. Channel 9 has been using other anchors to fill in since then.

“One of Tawny’s strengths is her versatility,” Henry said. “She has done just about every kind of news programming.”

Little, a former Miss America, also co-hosted Channel 7’s now-defunct evening travelogue “Eye on L.A.” magazine series in the mid-1980s. In 1989, she joined Steve Edwards as co-host on “A.M. Los Angeles,” which was canceled last fall.

Henry said that he has no immediate plans to produce similar shows for KCAL, but held out the possibility that Little would be involved in the production of hourlong specials and so-called “mini-docs.”

For the moment, Dunphy and Little will focus their combined charisma on the 10 p.m. audience, where KCAL faces its toughest competition from rival newscasts on KTLA Channel 5, KTTV Channel 11 and KCOP Channel 13.

“Jerry and Tawny were certainly a powerhouse anchor team when they were at KABC,” he said. “We think they’ll do the same for us.”