In an effort to curb declining ratings, WFLA promoted Sierens to co-anchor of the 6 & 11 p.m. newscasts with
Bob Hite in October 1985, a move that was criticized at first. The move later paid off as Sierens was regarded as being likeable and just as intuitive doing news as doing sports. In
1987, through a short stint with
NBC Sports, Sierens became the first woman to do
play-by-play for an NFL regular season football game when she called the December 27 game between the
Seattle Seahawks and the
Kansas City Chiefs. She was originally to be a regular play-by-play announcer for the season, but a contract dispute with WFLA prevented her from continuing in that role beyond her lone game. In 2017,
Beth Mowins became only the second woman to call an NFL game and first woman to call a
Monday Night Football broadcast. Here, the game was between the
Los Angeles Chargers and
Denver Broncos. January 10, 2007 was designated as "Gayle Sierens Day" by Tampa Mayor
Pam Iorio to commemorate Sierens' 30th year with the station, a rarity in television news. Sierens retired from WFLA-TV NewsChannel 8 in May 2015, after 38 years in the broadcast journalism industry. ==Personal life==