On Monday, Caroline Collins made her on-air debut on Fox 26 Houston, where she will be anchoring evening newscasts.
News anchor Caroline Collins made her highly anticipated Houston TV debut during Fox 26’s New Years Eve Special over the weekend, and followed it up with her first turn behind the big desk on Monday night. Formerly a morning anchor at KSEE 24 Sunrise News in Fresno, Calif., since 2020, the 29-year-old, who’s also a bonafide TikTok star, will now be anchoring Fox 26’s evening newscasts on weekdays at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Ahead of Monday’s appearance, Collins sat down with the Fox 26 morning team, during which anchors Heather Sullivan and Melissa Wilson helped introduce her to local viewers. Collins told the hosts that she’s currently going through a “transition” as she adjusts from anchoring in the morning to covering evenings, but that she’s excited to be in the Bayou City. “What a great city to live in now,” Collins said.”It’s thriving!”
On top of Collins’ TikToks announcing her arrival to Houston, and behind-the-scene glimpses as she’s prepared for Monday night’s broadcast, there’s also been a significant ad campaign promoting Collins’ new role. Fox 26 first announced her hire back in November, and since then, the local news channel has regularly shared clips of Collins telling viewers more about herself on social media.
A post shared by FOX 26 Houston (@fox26houston)
Before Collins made her first on-air appearances, the anchor also documented her exploration of Houston on social media. In December, Collins attended her first Houston Rockets game, during which she got to enjoy a rare win as the home team upset the vaunted Milwaukee Bucks and two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. Collins told Sullivan and Wilson that she already considers herself an Astros and Rockets fan.
On New Year’s Eve, Collins said she hung out at Tulum in Houston’s EaDo for a Fox 26 special. During her short time in Houston, Collins said she ate at “probably too many” restaurants. Included during those food stops was Buc-ee’s, which she first visited in December after driving into Houston from Fresno. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Collins said in a TikTok documenting the experience. “This is like a whole supermarket.”
Collins is a graduate of Point Park University in Pittsburgh, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and a master of arts in communication technology, with a concentration in social media. She earned a full-ride athletic scholarship while playing on the university’s women’s golf team for four years and as a college athlete, Collins won several tournaments and notched two holes-in-one.
“Now I just enjoy golfing for fun and at charity events,” Collins told Sullivan and Wilson.
A West Middlesex, Pa. native, Collins told Sullivan and Wilson that she had always dreamed of becoming a broadcast journalist. “My mom and I would watch local news together and I was always, like ‘I want to do what they’re doing. I want to talk to the people they’re talking to,'” Collins said. “My parents always encouraged me because clearly I was always so outgoing and talked a lot.” Collins, a former Miss Pennsylvania Teen, added that her mother entered her into pageants to aid her with public speaking.
Collins launched her career in broadcasting in 2015 as a general assignment reporter, fill-in anchor and producer at WJET-WFXP in Erie, Pa. She also served as a co-host on national golf show, The Swing Clinic, which aired on Fox Sports. Prior to her time at KSEE, Collins worked at WFMJ in Youngstown, Ohio as a weekend anchor and multi-media journalist. While at KSEE, Collins built a strong social media presence, especially on TikTok where she currently boasts more than 1.6 million followers and has collected more than 36 million likes.
Fans of Collins’ TikTok account have frequently approached her in Houston, she said. When she was asked by fellow Fox 26 anchor Sally MacDonald during a separate segment Monday how she’s gotten so many social media followers, Collins responded: ” I just show myself getting ready and what goes on behind the scenes in the news, introduce everybody to my coworkers and people seem to really like it.”
Coming to Houston was “unexpected,” Collins told Sullivan and Wilson, but “once I interviewed here and met all of the people… just the entire team was so nice and then all of the people that I met outside of this building touring the city, everyone is so kind. That southern hospitality, it just felt like such a nice place to live and become a part of the community.”
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Ariana Garcia joined Chron in 2021. Previously, she was a community news and breaking news reporter for the Austin American-Statesman. She enjoys binge-watching anime and films makeup tutorials in her spare time.