Daljit Dhaliwal Scores a Rare Double
Images of her face are used as desktop icons, and in numerous places she will turn heads in admiration?or envy. She is neither a film star nor a supermodel, but People magazine named her one of their “50 Most Beautiful People in the World” a decade ago. Daljit Dhaliwal is actually one of the most notable foreign-born news anchors on American TV.
Dhaliwal is not too thrilled with the “wrong” kind of attention she receives. “There is definitely in the United States more of an interest in celebrity culture, and perhaps to some extent, news in this country has kind of fallen in that,” she told New York-based Gothamist. “I think that is sad, and I think we need to be very careful about the meshing of celebrity with serious news.”
Fortunately for Dhaliwal, she is also being recognized for the right reasons. When Fareed Zakaria launched a weekly international show (GPS) in 2008 on CNN, she took over his old job as the host of Foreign Exchange on PBS. And now, Dhaliwal has added another feather to her cap. She is taking over as the anchor of Worldfocus on PBS, making her the only host of Indian heritage to have two news programs simultaneously on American television. While Foreign Exchange is a weekly show, Worldfocus airs every night on 88 percent of all PBS stations. Dhaliwal also contributes segments to ABCNews.com.
Born to Sikh immigrants in the United Kingdom, Dhaliwal made her television debut on BBC in 1990. Since then, she has maintained a steady presence—first in Britain and then in America—in the world of broadcast news, focusing mainly on international affairs. Dhaliwal has been a host of the Wide Angle documentary series on PBS. Previously, she had been an anchor of World News and World Focus on ITN. And Dhaliwal also had a stint in Atlanta, where she hosted Your World Today on CNN. “I left Atlanta because I wanted to be in New York,” she said in the same Gothamist interview. Ouch.
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