Frank Somerville says he’s done at KTVU, apologizes to newsroom for ‘drama’

Frank Somerville said Tuesday that he expects he has anchored his last newscast at KTVU, given that management hasn’t contacted him since he was suspended in September for an off-air dispute about coverage of the Gabby Petito case.

“All indications are that I’m never going to anchor at Channel 2 again,” the longtime anchor said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group. Somerville said he also wanted to apologize “to all the people in the station for all the drama” that ensued because of his suspension.

“All this drama isn’t good,” said Somerville, long a fixture of Bay Area TV news. “I wish I could apologize to all of them in person. They’re the backbone of Channel 2. I appreciate and admire what they do every day.”

Somerville was suspended the day after a reported dispute on Sept. 21 over his push to add a brief commentary on racial inequity to the end of a news story about the disappearance of social media influencer Gabby Petito, whose case had attracted a firestorm of media coverage.

In the interview, Somerville indicated that he didn’t think he was wrong to push for adding what’s known as a “tag” to a Petito case update, which aired Sept. 21. Somerville, however, declined to comment further on the dispute with KTVU managers, including with news director Amber Eikel.

Somerville reportedly wanted the tag, a brief closing to the story, to address domestic violence and the media’s tendency to overlook reports about missing and slain women of color, according to newsroom sources, who declined to give their names because they were not authorized to speak on the record. Petito, of Florida, was slain during a cross-country van trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie.

Shortly before the 5 p.m. broadcast, Eikel told Somerville she planned to cut the tag after newsroom editors raised concerns. Sources said Eikel was willing to assign a reporter to do a separate, more in-depth story. However, she agreed with the editors who thought the tag on its own wasn’t a sufficient way to cover the story and would blur the lines between an anchor delivering a straight news story and offering editorial commentary.

Somerville pushed back, saying the tag would contain factual information about domestic violence and crimes against women of color, but was overruled, a newsroom source said. Before the 6 p.m. broadcast, a producer, who was unfamiliar with the earlier discussions between Somerville and Eikel, noticed that a shortened tag had been added to the Petito update.

Somerville reportedly told the producer that Eikel had approved a shortened version, according to newsroom sources. But Eikel hadn’t, and the new tag was removed. The next day, Somerville was told he was suspended for defying a superior’s orders, sources said.

Since he left the station, Somerville said no one from KTVU or Fox, KTVU’s parent company, had contacted him. With his contract up in January, Somerville said he figures “that means they’re not going to re-sign me.”

KTVU and Fox have not responded to this publication’s requests for comment.

“It makes me really sad, because I’ve given 31 years to the station,” Somerville said. “I helped make ‘Mornings on 2’ the No. 1 newscast in the market. I also helped make the noon and 5 p.m. newscasts No. 1.”

Somerville said he wants to continue anchoring the news at a local TV station, though he has nothing lined up.

“I still want to continue working,” said Somerville, who lives in the East Bay. “I would love to work at one of the other stations in the market. If not, I’ll go to other stations outside of the market.”