A couple of thoughts from Jean's last night ... looks like Brian Williams recognized her on the Nightly News as a ground breaking female anchor, which was a classy touch.
For the last 18 months, I've noted (and pointed out here) that Jean was slowly withdrawing from prominence at KING. Many of the promos had her in it, but often times on her own, away from the anchor desk. Most frequently, Dennis was shown with Lori, and Jean was pictured solo (though the latest promo shown at the first commercial break during a newscast once again showed her at the desk with Dennis) Additionally, there was a big uptick in Jean Enersen Healthlink promos. She turns 70 on Monday ... while Gannett may have made the final push, I suspect this has been in the works for a long time.
As I mentioned up thread, she helped launch the 7PM newscast, then slowly slipped away from it. She backed off her newscast schedule substantially. Even when she is on set, Lori Matsukawa is ever present, reporting from the newsroom or a standup on set. Arguably, Lori has been more visible as the lead anchor over the last eighteen months than Jean. She's always there, whether at the desk or on set. Jean, on the other hand, is gone more often than not.
I'll miss Jean Enersen. She is so professional on the set, rarely letting her guard down. And while her farewell to her co-anchors today was subdued (compared to Dan Lewis' farewell), she obviously has a good relationship with Dennis, Jeff and Paul. Its also nice to note that while she cycled through many male co-anchors in her early career (Mike James, Don Porter, Aaron Brown and numerous others), her pairing with Dennis Bounds for the last twenty years has been outstanding. While they were obviously both comfortable with the role in Seattle, we've been spoiled by the quality job they've done. They easily could have been an anchor pair in a top five market, they were that good. And their ratings reflected that.
What a career.
