WNBC New York Elevates Anchors Gilma Avalos And Rana Novini

Two WNBC New York journalists are being promoted to new roles, starting in mid-June.

Current weekend news anchor Gilma Avalos will move to a weekday schedule and co-anchor WNBC’s 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekday newscasts alongside Adam Kuperstein. She will also appear on the 1 p.m. daily edition of News 4 New York, available exclusively on the NBC New York News streaming channel.

Veteran reporter and substitute news anchor Rana Novini will move into Avalos’ role as the solo weekend news anchor. She will lead the station’s 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays and continue as a general assignment reporter during the week.

Amy Morris, senior vice president of news for WNBC and WNJU (Telemundo), said: “Gilma and Rana are terrific colleagues and have been great newsroom contributors for several years. They truly care about their communities and our viewers have become more familiar with them. This is a wonderful opportunity for everyone and I cannot wait to see them excel in these new roles.”

Gilma Avalos

Avalos joined WNBC in 2019 as weekend evening news anchor and weekday general assignment reporter. She has covered many of the region’s biggest stories including the impact of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Hurricane Ida’s deadly flooding in 2021 and the Tri-State’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She previously worked at the KTVT Dallas-Fort Worth, where she anchored the weekday afternoon newscasts and delivered breaking news coverage. Prior to joining KTVT, Avalos worked at WNBC’s sister station WTVJ Miami as multimedia journalist and general assignment reporter. She began her professional career at News 12 The Bronx and helped develop the pilot that would later become News 12 en Español.

Bilingual in English and Spanish, Avalos was born in El Salvador and raised in Miami, where she learned English as a second language. She got her start in television at the age of 12 when she hosted Paleokids, a Spanish language children’s program focusing on paleontology for Discovery Channel Latin America. Avalos is a graduate of Columbia University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Hispanic studies. While a student at Columbia, she interned for NBC News Partnerships at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

Rana Novini

Novini joined WNBC in 2016 as a general assignment reporter. She is a two-time New York Emmy winner, earning these honors for her coverage of the 2016 Hoboken train crash, as well as for her look at the pandemic’s impact on the Bronx Muslim community. She also helped lead WNBC’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade coverage over the past two years. Novini joined NBCUniversal in 2016, after working at KRDO Colorado Springs for five years, where she rose through the ranks from digital content director to news anchor.

Novini is a native of Ohio and earned a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree in broadcast journalism and music: vocal performance from American University. She is fluent in Farsi.