Albany news anchor suspended for slurring, blames exhaustion

An Albany news anchor has been suspended after appearing disheveled and borderline incoherent, slurring her words for an entire broadcast on her CBS-affiliate station, WRGB-TV.

Heather Kovar said exhaustion and sleep deprivation caused the lapse, the Albany Times Union reported.

Rather than censure, viewers expressed concern, many pointing out the recent death of her father. Some noted she had referred during the broadcast to working a double shift.

Kovar had stepped away in May to be with her ailing father and returned on Father’s Day weekend after his death, the Times Union reported at the time.

“And so, moving on tonight, is we have to tell you also, you know, like other news that’s happening in the area, and across the area, in the nation,” she said during the flubbed broadcast, according to The Daily Beast. “Like, I was telling you this morning, if you watched us this morning starting at 6 a.m., 7 a.m., I told you, you know what? Today, what a beautiful day outside! It is just amazing. And so, a great time for outdoor music.”

Elsewhere in the broadcast she gushed about how “lucky” the Albany area was, weatherwise, for the weekend.

Besides slurring and rambling, Kovar named the wrong meteorologist while introducing his weather report, calling him Craig Adams instead of Craig Gold.

She later tweeted that she’d be back on Sunday, but that didn’t happen.

“Heather Kovar has been suspended pending our internal investigation,” WRGB vice president and general manager Robert Croteau told the Albany Times Union. “We have no further comment at this time.”