Stokes began her journalistic career as the medical reporter and then weekend co-anchor at
WCIA in
Champaign-Urbana,
Illinois in 1986. Then, in 1988, she worked as a reporter and weekend anchor for
WBTV in
Charlotte,
North Carolina. There for two years, she became popular with the viewers in that state. Next, Stokes worked as a crime and street reporter for
WBFF-TV, the
Fox Station in
Baltimore. Finally, Stokes got hands on experience for full-time anchor as
WJLA-TV's lead female anchor of the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. She was there from 1992 through 1996. Then Stokes went to
MSNBC at the time of its inception. She was one of the original anchors on the 24-hour
cable news television channel and the first African American to speak on the cable news network. MSNBC hired newcomer "girl in glasses"
Ashleigh Banfield to
MSNBC in 2000 and replaced Stokes on MSNBC'S
Today in America also in 2000. During her tenure at
NBC News Stokes was a rotating newsreader for "NBC Sunrise" and
Weekend Today. During her tenure at the
cable TV station, Stokes covered the
Columbine High School Massacre and the death of
John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1999.
Career in New York City Stokes was paired with
Robb Hanrahan who, at the time, also co-anchored the station's 5 p.m. news with
Roz Abrams and had previously co-anchored the morning news. The new pair, who replaced anchors
Nancy Loo and
David Ushery, did not work as well as WABC had hoped they would. Hanrahan was taken off the morning news in December 2000 and replaced with
WABC-TV's weekend sports anchor
Steve Bartelstein. Stokes and Bartelstein proved to work well and eventually helped bring
Eyewitness News This Morning back to the number one position it had enjoyed in previous years. The pair eventually took over anchoring duties for
Eyewitness News at Noon, replacing
Nancy Loo and
David Ushery once again. For a brief time in 2003, Stokes was removed from the noon newscast and replaced with
Sade Baderinwa. Stokes resumed anchoring the noon newscast when
Roz Abrams left the station and was replaced by Baderinwa. From Tuesday, March 13, 2007, to Wednesday, July 4, 2007, (
Independence Day), Stokes was the sole anchor of
Eyewitness News This Morning and
Eyewitness News at Noon. She was joined by a rotating roster of reporters from March until July when reporter
Ken Rosato was chosen to permanently replace
Steve Bartelstein. Rosato officially took over on July 9, 2007, as her morning and noon co-anchor. In fall 2010, the morning newscast expanded to begin at 4:30 a.m. and, in fall 2014, the noon news expanded to a full hour, which lengthened Stokes' and Rosato's already long days. As part of the expansion, WABC promised to relieve both of them of their noon duties in order to focus on the morning news. That promise was kept and, in June 2015, Stokes and Rosato handed over noon duties to David Novarro and Shirleen Allicot. Lori Stokes left Eyewitness News in August 2017 and, on October 4, 2017, started her tenure as co-host of
Good Day New York with
Rosanna Scotto on Fox 5
WNYW replacing
Greg Kelly. WNYW promoted Stokes to anchoring the station’s evening broadcasts in June 2021. Stokes retired from broadcasting on September 30, 2022. ==See also==