The Telemundo Station Group today announced Telemundo 20 San Diego’s new news team. Lizzet Lopez and Guadalupe Venegas have been named news anchors and both will be joined by weather anchor Ana Cristina Sanchez, sports anchor MJ Acosta and a team of multimedia journalists that includes Leticia Estrada, Lissette Martinez, Anlleyn Venegas and Rigo Villalobos.
The news team will make its on-air debut on Monday, July 3, 2017.
Telemundo 20 San Diego launches on July 1, 2017 and will air four half-hour weekday newscasts, Noticiero Telemundo 20 at 5 PM, 5:30 PM, 6 PM and 11 PM (PT) beginning Monday, July 3.
Anchored by Lopez and Venegas, the new locally-produced and live newscasts will provide audiences in the San Diego and Baja-California area in Mexico the local news, weather and sports information they need to help them stay ahead.
“We’re excited to welcome an outstanding team of journalists to San Diego to help us launch Telemundo 20 this July,” said Richard Kelley, President and General Manager of Telemundo 20 and NBC 7 / KNSD. “We conducted an extensive search to find the best Spanish-speaking and bilingual journalists and look forward to Lizzet and Guadalupe anchoring our weekly newscasts alongside a dynamic team.”
Lopez is an award-winning journalist and an experienced news anchor who has worked in local broadcasting for nearly a decade. She joins the Telemundo 20 team after working at various television and radio stations in the United States and Mexico, including Univision 45 Houston / KXLN, UniMás KHFT 67 and TV Azteca Zacatecas.
Venegas joins Telemundo 20 after working for Telemundo Network for nearly a decade in various on-air capacities including host, reporter and anchor for Telemundo’s national entertainment, sports and news programs including Al Rojo Vivo. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications and Spanish Arts from San Diego State University.
Sanchez comes to Telemundo 20 after forecasting weather for local and national audiences by working as a weather anchor for The Weather Company, an IBM business as well as Telemundo New Mexico and Telemundo Lubbock.
Additionally, Sanchez has direct experience in digital news content creation and dissemination after working at Google as a digital content editor for Google Play Newsstand. She earned a bachelor degree in Communications from Texas Tech University. She is currently pursuing second bachelor’s degree in Broadcast and Operational Meteorology from Mississippi State University and a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts and Journalism from Harvard University.
NBC 7’s bilingual sports anchor MJ Acosta will join Telemundo 20’s news team to deliver the latest sports news to Spanish-speaking viewers. Acosta, who joined KNSD last year, has extensive experience reporting sports for various audiences. Acosta also serves as a sideline reporter for NBC’s Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Barry University.
The station’s new team of multimedia journalists includes Anlleyn Venegas, who joins the San Diego team from Telemundo 52 Los Angeles / KVEA, Rigo Villalobos who hails from Telemundo 60 San Antonio / KVDA, Leticia Estrada who most recently worked as a reporter for Estrella TV’s national morning show, Buenos Dias Familias and Estrella TV 62 in Southern California and Lissette Martinez, a local broadcast journalist with experience working across various local stations in California and Arizona.
Telemundo 20 San Diego’s local news launch represents the latest series of enhancements made by the Telemundo Station Group to all of its owned stations across the United States and Puerto Rico, thanks to a significant investment made by NBCUniversal to better serve the flourishing Spanish-speaking community. NBCUniversal’s investment in its Telemundo-owned stations has helped to transform the stations and to usher in a new era in Spanish-language local news. NBCUniversal’s investment in its stations has directly supported local news expansions, bolstered newsgathering efforts and equipped the news teams with the resources they need to be competitive in the markets they serve.
About Telemundo Station Group
Telemundo Station Group, part of the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations division of NBCUniversal, is comprised of 17 local television stations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Producing and broadcasting more than 7,000 hours of unique and relevant local content each year, including award-winning news, public affairs, and entertainment programming, Telemundo Station Group serves Spanish-speaking viewers in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, New York, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, San Antonio, San Francisco, Phoenix, Harlingen, Fresno, Denver, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Boston, Tucson and Puerto Rico. In addition, Telemundo Station Group operates TeleXitos, the new national multicast network that offers viewers popular action and adventure television series and feature films in Spanish. The group also provides support to 53 Telemundo affiliates across the country and manages dedicated local websites and applications, as well as a robust digital out-of-home operation.
