Former Anchor Sues Nexstar

Just over a year ago, FTVLive told you that WHO-TV longtime Investigative Reporter and Anchor Sonya Heitshusen says that she was dumped by the Nexstar station and she says she thinks it was the station saw her as too old to be a woman on TV.

"I spent 27 years of my life doing this,” she said at the time. "I loved my job. I think I was good at it. It's hard to be essentially forced out."

Now, Heitshusen is trying to right what she feels was a wrong and is suing the station and parent company Nexstar. Heitshusen filed an age and gender discrimination lawsuit yesterday against Nexstar.

The lawsuit alleges Heitshusen, 54, was "thrown out to pasture" because she was no longer seen as camera-worthy, after years in which she saw her male colleagues receive better treatment from management.

"Where are all the women who are in TV broadcasting over 50? You don't see women on TV with gray hair and wrinkles," she told The Associated Press last week. "It has to change. Women are relevant after the age of 50. They have a lot of great ideas. They are hard workers and can make a difference."

The Des Moines Register writes that Heitshusen said she was blindsided in April 2020 when the station's news director, Rod Peterson, informed her that the station was exercising a clause in her contract to fire her without cause as a "business decision." She said she was told the company valued her and might be able to find her a lower-paying digital position, but nothing on the air.

"I thought, 'I'm good enough to work here but I'm not good enough to be on camera?'" recounted Heitshusen, who was the oldest female anchor in the station's history. "The only thing that signaled to me was that it's my appearance."

The lawsuit seeks orders requiring Nexstar to pay Heitshusen unspecified damages and to take remedial actions, including training for management on gender and age stereotypes and an analysis of how female employees have been treated.