Correspondent, CBS News

Jamie Yuccas | Biography

Former Main Morning Anchor at CBS-owned WCCO-TV in Minneapolis

• By Chetana
• Original : August 10, 2021

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Jamie Yuccas is a two-time ‘Emmy Award’ winning news anchor, who is currently corresponding for CBS News.

Who is Jamie Yuccas?

Yuccas is a journalism graduate from the University of Minnesota. After graduating in 2003, she began working as a weekend anchor for the Fox-affiliated channel KTTC/KXLT in Rochester, Minnesota.

Then, from 2004 to 2011, she worked in various positions, such as the primary news anchor, reporter, and producer at the WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, Florida. Later, she was the weekend morning news anchor at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 2011 to 2013. After that, she worked as the main morning news anchor of WCCO-TV between 2013 to 2015. During the time, Yuccas also did occasional reporting on CBS This Morning, CBS Evening News and initiated weather-related briefs for WBBM, KCBS, and WFOR channels.

Subsequently, in 2015 she joined the CBS network as a correspondent from Los Angeles. There, she covered important topics such as the Pulse nightclub tragedy in Orlando, the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, and the 2016 presidential campaign.

In addition to that, Yuccas handled the CBS reporting of Derek Chauvin’s case from Minneapolis. Chauvin was the police officer who got prosecuted and convicted for the death of George Floyd. She also conducted an exclusive interview with one of the non-deliberating jurors of the trial.

In 2021, Yuccas went to Tokyo to cover the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Early Age

Yuccas was born to an Irish mother, Karen Yuccas. She was raised in Twin Cities, Minnesota. Her birthday falls on 3 August. She was born in 1982.

After high school, she enrolled at the University of Minnesota in 2000. Then, she graduated the four years spanned Bachelor of Arts in Journalism course within three years.  

Family Inspiration

Yuccas credits her mother for cheering on her and supporting her whenever there were downfalls in her life. Similarly, she admires her maternal grandparents for teaching her about love in relationships. In a heartfelt Instagram post in 2021, she wished St. Patrick’s Day to her Irish grandparents and wrote about their memory.

She captioned, “Whenever my grandmother was in a bad mood or threw a fit, my grandfather would just look at her lovingly and say to us ‘Isn’t she cute?’ They were the best and taught me about faith and unconditional love. I miss them, especially on St. Patrick’s Day.”

Career

After graduating college in 2003, Yuccas joined the Fox-affiliated sister station KTTC/KXLT in Rochester, Minnesota. She worked there as a weekend anchor and reporter, produced and hosted weekend evening newscasts, and also was the primary fill-in anchor.

Subsequently, in 2004, she began working at WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, Florida as a primary news anchor, reporter, and producer. There, she anchored the 4 pm, 5:30 pm, and 11 pm broadcasts. She was also in charge of breaking news coverage, including national disasters, significant storms, and the Gulf Oil Spill.

Then, in 2011, Yuccas started working as the weekend morning news anchor at CBS-owned WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There, she was also the main fill-in anchor for primary newscasts. During that time, she also conducted the coverage of Hurricane Sandy for WCBS.

In 2013, she was promoted to main morning anchor of the station. Alongside, she delivered breaking reports for CBS This Morning and the CBS Evening News. In addition to that, she also gave weather-related live reporting for WBBM, KCBS, and WFOR channels.

CBS News

Eventually, in 2015, she joined CBS News as a Los Angeles correspondent. She was responsible for reporting, producing, and developing news and feature articles. She also took over high-profile topics of the network, including the Pulse nightclub tragedy in Orlando, the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, and the 2016 presidential campaign.

Derek Chauvin Case

Among her high-profile covering was the 2020 trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who was convicted for the death of George Floyd in May of 2020.

She was the lead reporter and correspondent of CBS at the time. She covered the entire trial and proceedings of the case that happened under Minneapolis State’s jurisdiction during March of 2020.

Later, Yuccas also conducted an exclusive interview with an alternate juror of the trial. The juror, numbered by the court as 96, was not involved in the verdict but witnessed the entire trial. Her interview was aired on CBS This Morning.

In the interview, Yuccas asked bout the evidence and experts presented by the prosecution, which made the jury deem Chauvin as guilty of all charges.

Few days earlier, Yuccas had made an Instagram post on her first-hand reaction to the verdict and had posted her subsequent tweet on the conviction of Chauvin on all three alleged counts.

She also added a personal message on the issue, which she claimed needed to be looked through by everyone. “There is more work to do and I am feeling a lot of different emotions. This never should have happened in the first place. I hope the verdict keeps the conversation going on how we can all do better, be better listeners, and treat others how we want to be treated.”

Tokyo Olympics 2021

In addition to the trial, Yuccas was sent to Tokyo, Japan, for CBS’s Olympics coverage.

From the official initiation of the games on 23 July 2021 and its closing on 8 August 2021, Yuccas reported from Tokyo on the happenings of the competition. She also made an additional impact review of the game’s negative stimulus on the pandemic spread on not only the city but the entire nation of Japan.

Awards and Recognition

Before joining the CBS, Yuccas had already bagged two ‘Emmy Awards’ and one ‘Florida Associated Press Award.’

She had won the ‘Associated Press’ award for a feature piece on a U.S. Marshals Operation. Followed by that, one of her ‘Emmy Award’ was for her 2012 Hurricane Sandy reporting.

Ex-husband

Yuccas was married to a New York Sales representative of Starkey Hearing, John Sheen. They were married in 2007 and got a divorce after ten years in 2017.