Veteran broadcaster Monica Pearson joins AJC with new video program

Legendary Atlanta broadcaster Monica Pearson is joining The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to host a new video and podcast interview program.

She will also write a regular lifestyle newsletter and column for AJC.com and the newspaper, and host AJC Live events. A start date has not been announced.

Pearson, 75, has been an icon in local broadcasting for more than four decades, making her mark as an anchor on WSB-TV. As the city’s first Black female evening anchor, she spent 37 years at Channel 2 Action News from 1975 to 2012. Currently, she hosts an interview show “Monica Pearson One on One” on Peachtree TV.

Pearson’s new AJC show will feature her interviewing a variety of Georgians. Over the years, she has had one-on-one interviews with everyone from Burt Reynolds and Billy Graham to Andrew Young and Barbara Walters.

“This is a full circle moment for me since I started my paid journalism career in 1969 as a reporter for The Louisville Times newspaper in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky,” Pearson said. “This is another opportunity for me to do what I love doing: interviewing people. After an interview, my slogan simply is, ‘You know the name and now you will know the person.’”

Pearson has won 33 regional and local Emmy awards and has been inducted into the halls of fame of The Atlanta Press Club, National Association of Black Journalists and the Georgia Association of Broadcasters.

“Nobody is more Atlanta than Monica,” said Andrew Morse, the AJC’s president and publisher. “We are thrilled for her to bring her talent to the AJC.”