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Jillian Barberie Says She Wasn't Exactly 'Fired' From GDLA
Jillian Barberie on the set of GDLA in 2009 (Photo by John Wayne Maioriello for LAist)
TV personality Jillian Barberie surprised many longtime fans Thursday when she revealed in a single tweet that she would no longer be on the morning show "Good Day L.A." after nearly two decades in the post. Fox 11 soon announced that Maria Sansone would be taking over co-hosting duties as of Monday, October 1. So what happened?
Barberie took to her personal website to blog an exclamation mark-dense "explanation" of what went down. She writes:
I wasn't let go as in "fired". In fact, Fox was trying to find something for me to do a few times a week.
But Barberie doesn't go into what Fox was pitching her, ("segments from the field of some sort," she offers)--though she says she knows she just wasn't interested. "I love hosting. I just do!! My agent told them we weren't interested. So ... this is a new beginning for me in every way!!!!"
Hosting GDLA did indeed prove to be career-making for Barberie, who did everything on the show from the weather to a style report--both of which she was no longer permitted to do in recent months. Recent months also included the firing of co-host Dorothy Lucey, with whom Barberie has previously admitted to having a tense relationship, perhaps explaining her teary outburst when it came time for her departure. Barberie says she was "cool with the change" that evolved this year on the show.
So what's next for her? Barberie says she will be seen on HSN soon on behalf of a cosmetics company, and promises she will "be back invading your bedrooms soon enough!" Look out!
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