NEW YORK — Five months into her dream job on CNN’s New Day, Michaela Pereira says she finally feels like a New Yorker.
It’s hard not to when you find yourself shopping for winter coats, riding the subway, being recognized in Central Park and arriving at CNN on Columbus Circle before the sun comes up to join Kate Bolduan and Chris Cuomo for the 6 a.m. ET broadcast.
“I don’t take the subway at 3 in the morning, though. I wouldn’t know which direction to go because I’m half-asleep,” laughs Pereira, who co-anchored KTLA’s Morning News for nine years on the West Coast before debuting as news anchor on New Day in June.
After wrapping another edition of CNN’s slick three-hour morning show, Pereira — elegantly attired in a navy-blue silk outfit — happily sinks into a plush booth for breakfast at Landmarc, a few floors below the New Day studio in Time Warner Center.
She seems remarkably relaxed for someone who’s been up since 3 a.m., spent 45 minutes in hair and makeup and brainstormed with producers and co-hosts before getting back on the tightrope.
A typical day includes more meetings with producers, research, social media duties, previewing news video and doing voiceovers or publicity before heading home, where she has no trouble falling asleep by 7:30 p.m.
“You cannot do this show and not sleep,” Pereira laughs.
One of the best ways to get to know a new city is to do charity work, says the Saskatoon-born broadcaster and former UVic student who got her start at CHEK in 1993. Pereira co-hosted CHEK Around with Gordie Tupper, then anchored Internet Tonight on ZDTV and TechLive on TechTV in San Francisco before moving to L.A., where she worked with inner city youths.
Although she vowed not to overdo community events in New York until the new year so she could adjust to her new job, she couldn’t resist a volunteering gig offered to Turner employees.
“I linked up with a Harlem food bank and did some really good physical labour, which I really miss,” recalled Pereira, 43.
Now that she’s a full-fledged member of Team CNN, Pereira’s life has changed dramatically.
“I’m floored by the brand recognition CNN has. It’s global,” she says.
She good-naturedly dismisses a suggestion workaholism must be part of a CNN employee’s job description, with heavy-hitters like Anderson Cooper and chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour seemingly mid-air half the time.
“I think Anderson only sleeps an hour a day,” she jokes. “And Christiane and Wolf Blitzer — I don’t think they ever sleep.”
Pereira acknowledges you must be a certain type of person to thrive in such a high-stakes world.
She says she “worked my butt off” and made plenty of sacrifices amid an “enthralling, at times terrifying journey” that makes her feel like Alice in Wonderland.
“I think there are certain Type-A personalities and go-getters in the media,” she adds. “You can’t just be somebody who sits back waiting for things to happen. You have to be talking to people, movers and shakers, policy-makers.”
Favourite studio guests include Julia-Louis Dreyfus, John Goodman (“A class act, a real guy who’s very humble and works hard”), Jake Gyllenhaal (“All my girlfriends swooned”) and Chelsea Clinton (“She has her father’s charm and her mother’s smarts.”).
As New Day’s lone Canadian, she sees herself as an unofficial ambassador.
“I encourage folks … to see for themselves there’s more to Canada than just cold weather, beer and punchlines to South Park skits,” said Pereira, disappointed the Rob Ford scandal is the Canadian story now grabbing headlines in the U.S.
“It would seem we’re watching someone, very publicly, come undone,” she said. “I think we all can agree that what [Ford] needs is to take some time to focus on his health. It’s easy to cast judgment and make fun, but it’s not helpful to someone who may be truly sick.”
The story that has affected her most, however, is the tale of Baby Veronica, the Cherokee girl at the centre of a long dispute between her biological father and the South Carolina couple awarded custody.
“It’s been heartbreaking. I was adopted as an infant and I only ever knew my wonderful adoptive parents. They’ve always been Mom and Dad to me,” said Pereira, one of five adopted daughters whose parents, the Thomsons — Doug, a retired civil servant, and Ainslie, a retired schoolteacher — live in the Cowichan Valley.
Her most bizarre stories include one about a 68-year-old man with a tattoo of his young bikini-clad girlfriend on his bald spot.
“I worked with Gordie Tupper for so many years I’m used to crazy behaviour from men with receding hairlines,” she deadpans. “So it wasn’t that unusual.”
