by Robrt L. Pela | Photography by Thomas Ingersoll
Yetta Gibson refuses to lose her cool, even when, say, a guest hits on her during an on-camera interview. An Atlanta native who began her broadcasting career on CNN Radio’s The Tom Joyner Morning Show, Gibson has the composure that comes from experience. The one-time FOX 10 entertainment reporter has been a 3TV/CBS5 mainstay since 2017, but she’s been longing to stretch. And she has: Her new half-hour show, Arizona’s Family Original, offers long-form interviews with what she calls “interesting people doing interesting things.” Guests have included YouTube content creator Dawson Gurley, Wanda Durant (Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant’s mom) and actress and talk-show host Drew Barrymore.
Have you always wanted to host a talk show?
I’ve been talking to Channel 3 about doing this show for about 10 years. It came from me going, “Oh, there’s so much bad news to report. Can’t we do something else?” I’d been doing the blood-and-guts news stories for so long, and I wanted to do something that wasn’t super sad, and to give stories some room to breathe. News is changing and evolving, and I kept saying, “Why aren’t we giving people more variety?” And now I’ve finally hit the jackpot.
How can viewers find Arizona’s Family Original?
Right now, we’re doing it monthly, and in September we go weekly. We’re on 3TV and on YouTube and azfamily.com. I’m getting good feedback – people coming up to me at Target or at the gym, and they’re saying, “Oh, god, I loved that story you did!”
Did you ever suffer from impostor syndrome, where you felt like everyone else around you knew what they were doing, and maybe you didn’t?
I didn’t. I get that people feel that way, but I can’t say that’s my story. Maybe because I’ve always felt very different in this industry. I’m not a typical news anchor – visually, or the way I deliver the news. I always say I’m having my own party up there. Sometimes I feel myself drifting off into acting like how a news anchor acts or talks, and I stop myself and think, “I can’t believe you said that.”
I can’t believe that you shanghaied Drew Barrymore’s talk show audience. You totally took over the interview!
[laughing] See? That’s what I mean. I have moments where I forget I’m on TV, just for a moment or a nanosecond. I forgot that I was on Drew’s show, and she was interviewing me, not the other way around. Yesterday, we were doing a story about credit card scams, and my reporter goes, “I can’t say the name of the company that scammed me.” And I said, “Can you tell us what it rhymes with?” Our producer was yelling in my ear, “You can’t ask that!” But I wouldn’t do it over.
And then there was that time you were interviewing rapper Yung Gravy, and he hit on you.
People think that’s what happened, and I’m not going to say he didn’t. He’s 27, and I am older than that, and I asked him about how he always talks about liking older women. And then that clip went viral. It got over 100,000 views. Which proves my point from before, about how people need balance in their news. They don’t want just bad news, they want something as silly as watching a rapper flirt with the reporter. Right?
Do you worry that journalists will eventually be replaced by artificial intelligence?
No. I think there’s some pretty valuable stuff about AI. I use it to transcribe notes. It’s hot right now, but I don’t think it will last. AI is efficient, but it doesn’t have any soul. It can’t replace the personality of the person who’s doing the reporting. That human element where people are connecting with the way you speak or the way you write. Where they’re saying, “I like the vibe you’re giving me.” AI doesn’t give you a vibe, it gives you basic material. And I am not basic material.
