Sara Lee Kessler (born 1951) is the former anchor for

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

's Channel 9 nightly local broadcast news program in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She was formerly a health reporter for

New Jersey Network The New Jersey Network (NJN) was a network of public television and radio stations serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. NJN was a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television and the National Public Radio (NPR) for radio, br ...

's nightly half hour NJN News broadcast. She currently reports for WABC radio in New York and

NBC News Radio NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

Working with WWOR-TV

Kessler was hired by

WWOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW ...

in 1976 as a reporter and became co-anchor of "News at Noon," with anchorman Tom Dunn later that year. She also co-anchored the station's "News 9 PrimeTime," which was an 8 PM newscast, from 1983-1987. When WWOR-TV switched to a 10 PM newscast in late 1987, Kessler became solo anchor of the "News at Noon." She also co-hosted "9 Broadcast Plaza," a 3-hour live daily news/chat program from 1989–1991, joined by future ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...

'' co-host

Matt Lauer Matthew Todd Lauer (; born December 30, 1957) is an American former television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News. After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the ne ...

. She continued as anchor of "News at Noon" until the newscast was cancelled and then became a weekend news anchor and reporter for "News at Ten." Kessler won an Emmy Award for anchoring WWOR-TV's coverage of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In 1994, Kessler was fired by WWOR. She subsequently sued the television station for

religious discrimination Religious discrimination is treating a person or group differently because of the particular beliefs which they hold about a religion. This includes instances when adherents of different religions, denominations or non-religions are treated u ...

, among other charges. Kessler, who is an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...

woman, claimed that she was forced to work on Saturdays, which is forbidden by the Jewish religion. She was later able to successfully sue the station for $7.3 million. Kessler was among the first journalists to interview

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

when he received a green card after years of fighting U.S. government efforts to deport him. She has been a resident of Englewood, New Jersey for more than 20 years.Markos, Kibret
"Judge sends Bergen County, N.J., contractor to jail."
''

The Record (Bergen County) ''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and ...

'', October 16, 2004. Accessed May 13, 2007. "Robert Miller and Sara Lee Kessler hired a contractor in July 2002 to renovate their kitchen at their Englewood home."

References

External links

Profile of Ms. Kessler on NJN website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kessler, Sara Lee American broadcast news analysts Television anchors from New York City American Orthodox Jews Living people People from Englewood, New Jersey 1951 births American women television journalists 21st-century American women