Why Did Betty Nguyen Leave WPIX-11? Did She Get Another Job Elsewhere?

The idea of news presenters seems like a strange concept. Because at its core, reporting is supposed to be a presentation of facts and evidence without any bias. However, human beings love a good anchor to help relay said unbiased information. We want to see a recognizable face give us our facts.

It's comforting and reliable, so whenever an anchor or TV presenter makes a sudden departure from our favorite news program it can be a bit jarring. This is probably why a lot of WPIX-11 viewers are asking themselves: What happened to Betty Nguyen?

Viewers at home were surprised when Betty didn't greet them on PIX 11 Morning News. The channel's website reads, "Betty Nguyen was an anchor for the PIX11 Morning News. She left the station in October 2021."

However, neither the network nor Nguyen have offered any further context on her exit, and some fans are expressing their displeasure at the way the network "handled" her exit.

Betty's been a prominent news personality for years, taking up hosting/presentation duties for a variety of high-profile productions. During her tenure with NBC, she held hosting duties on Early Today and then First Look on MSNBC. She also performed correspondence for the Today show.

Betty Nguyen also made television history as the first Vietnamese-American who anchored a national TV broadcast in the U.S. She was born in Saigon, but her family had to flee the city before she turned a year old, which was right around the time of the end of the Vietnam War.

In a CNN clip, Betty spoke highly of her father, highlighting the fears he must've felt in bringing them to America: "He was an American serviceman who fell in love with a Vietnamese college student. They married and had me, a child who was given life when so many were losing theirs in the war. We fled Vietnam, crammed into a packed C-130 cargo plane. It was stepping into the unknown."

She continued, "Nothing was guaranteed except that turning back was not an option. And that meant leaving behind my grandparents. … As hard as it was, fleeing not only saved my life, it gave me a new one, in a place called America."

Nguyen would spend her early years in Forth Worth, Texas, and she eventually attended the University of Texas at Austin where she earned a degree in broadcast journalism.

Considering her extensive resume on shows like Morning Joe, Today, Weekend Today, The CBS Morning News, American Morning, and tenures that span CNN, CBS, NBC, and WPIX, it's difficult to imagine that Betty isn't going to find another opportunity.

However it could just be that Betty's taking a break from work to spend time with her family, and with a ton of time put into completing high-level work, it'd be hard to blame her for doing so.