A News Anchor's Entire Routine, from Waking Up to Getting On Camera

Kimberly Holmes-Iverson, journalist and Morning News Anchor, breaks down her entire daily routine from waking up at midnight to bedtime at 4pm.

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- Hi, I'm Kimberly Holmes-Iverson.I'm a morning news anchor,and this is how I work it.I am gonna take you through 24 hoursof my beauty and wellness routine.I start my workday atmidnight every night.I am live on the air two hours a day,10 hours a week, from 5:00AM until 7:00 AM, weekdays.Being a broadcast journalistI am considered an essential employee.So I worked in the officeduring the entire pandemic.On top of being a morning news anchor,I am also a college adjunct.I teach journalism, communication,and media courses at two local colleges.The most challenging part of my jobis telling someone really horrible news.When you have to knock on the doorof someone who has lost their everythingand ask them to spill thebeans on that loved one,that's hard, beyond difficult.But you're also giving that persona chance to share their story,to help further the legacy of the person,and often to help solve a crime.The best part of the jobis every day is a new day.And in this ever-changingworld morning newsis something that peoplestill watch today.It's not something younormally watch on your phone.You are watching it asyou're getting ready.Yeah, you play a littlerole in people's day,which is kinda cool.[alarm chiming]Alexa, stop.My alarm clock, the firstone, goes off at midnight.I have five alarms.And normally I will go throughat least three of them.Alexa, what time is it?- [Alexa] The time is 12:09 AM.- Time to wake up.And so at that point, takeout my dog, brush my teeth,wash my face, and then hop in the shower.That helps to wake me up.I mean, normally I am just pooped.And so I need all the help I can getto get to the perky news anchorthat everybody sees at five.Now it's time to get dressed.For me, as far as my wardrobe,I love bright colors.And especially in the morningwhen people need to wake upand get a burst of energy.Blue dresses, purple,neutral brown dresses, yellow dresses.Yellow is one of my favorites.And it's hard sometimes to findsome really great yellow piecesthat aren't too crazy.It's still the news.This is today's dress.[Kimberly sings]I try to stay away from patterns too much.Every once in a while,because you're trying to dressyourself five days a week,four weeks out of the month.12:50.And look what my husbanddoes before he goes to bed.He makes me breakfast burritos.That's really good.She always comes in herewhen I make my coffee,she knows she gets hertreat right before I leave.All right, Lola.Have a good day.And then I head into work.It's dark and early.Let's go.Now I start sanitizing everything.I sanitize the green room,and then I sanitize my desk,and then I sanitize the anchor desk.And then I start writing everything,and looking over everything.I am there with my producer.Morning Rose.- Good morning.- We just start banging out the show.While I'm at my desk I like another snack.So I normally do like fruit or something.Okay, it is 3:33.So I need to head into the green roomand start doing my makeup and my hairbecause I can't go on looking like this.Have about 20 minutes orso to throw on some makeupand figure out my hair.I have really oily skin.And so I'm always trying to find somethingthat helps mattify that, butdoesn't make me break out.So I definitely put, what is it called?Oh my God.What's before foundation?- [Woman] Primer?- Yes, there you go.Ooh, now my morning brain's kicking in.Now you're getting the fun stuff.So yeah, I definitely loveto start with a primer.I do like the foundation I have now.And I always have to have powder.I don't wanna look cakey.I love to wear neutralcolors for the news,but nothing too neutral,'cause I'll look washed out.I really loved my eyelashextensions, but because of COVID,I've actually turnedto magnetic eyelashes.I admire girls who do fantastic eyebrows.I don't have the patienceor the time in the morning,so I just gotta throwthem on really quickly.But I do love Anastasia for that.And then of course,when I've gained weight,I definitely need somecontour in my cheeksto make them pop.So I love to do something there,and a little bit of blushto make your cheekbones pop.I love a color on thelip that's not too much.I grew up in a familywhere you love a red lip,but you can't really do that on the news.Every once in a while,depending on the look.It's 3:58.So this is when thecountdown really begins.An hour until the newscast,but you still have a bunchof things you need to do,before we get to that part.So quickly, quickly curl my hair.During the pandemic I didn'tsee my stylist for months.A professional cut, trim, or color,may be harder to get these days.Months.[people laughing]Say thanks to your hairstylist today.And I didn't want to put abunch of heat on my hair.So it really was a great timeto embrace my natural curls on air.It was really beautiful becauseI saw a lot of news anchorsaround the country,especially Black news anchors,embrace their natural hair.And I just got my hair straightened.And so I pretty much just curlit right before the newscast,It never looks how I want it to,because at this point Iadmittedly am rushing.It doesn't fail, especiallywhen I'm in the greatest rush,I mess up something somewhere,and you just gotta run with it.For me, I always usually throw on belts'cause I have to stick mymic pack onto something.And it's easy for me tojust put it on a belt.So it goes through somefinagling going up my dress.and all of that stuff.It's almost time to dance.Normally between 4:03 if I'm early,and 4:12 if I'm running late,is when I shoot my green room shenanigans.So about 4:09 is the average timeto hit the music and jam a little bit.And we've got a bunch ofstuff to shoot beforehand.Mic on.Just put my earpiece in.Now you see me put this on my belt.Here we go.That's Mike, my meteorologist.He is getting ready toshoot his weather cut ins.This is what airs during the national newswhen they have a little news blip come in.- [Mike] Hi there everybody,and a happy Monday to you.Temperatures in thesixties across Delmarva.- I've got radio stuff to work on.Schools reopening throughout the county.Universities taking precautionson the Eastern shore.My title, I'm the morning anchor.But I guess in my role,I am also producer,executive producer-ish.Especially being in a small market,you do a bit more than what you wouldtypically do in a larger market.I work on the Eastern shore of Maryland.That encompasses Maryland,Virginia, and Delaware.Right around the area that'stwo hours outside of Philly,Baltimore, and D.C.And I feel we do have,especially this station,very strong ties to the community.They hold you accountable,but at the same time,you really are a part of the community,and you feel that in a good way.So it's time to head to the set.Let's go, shall we?And then we get readyfor the newscast and go.4:59, 26 seconds, 30 seconds.We're counting down till the newscast.Mike, happy Monday.- [Mike] Happy Monday!- And go.- [Announcer] This isWBOC News this morning.Delmarva's news leader.Thank you for joiningWBOC News this morning.I'm Kimberly Holmes.The show goes on at five,we air from five to seven.It's a hard shift.I don't think your body ever gets used togoing to bed in the middle of the day,or not going to bed at all.And needing all of yourfaculties to present the newsand get through your job.I feed off the energy of my team.And honestly, I love my team.- Happy birthday.- Thank you.- Thank you so much forbeing a part of WBOC News.- Hit me right in the heart.You know how to get me.I'm gonna eat the whole thing.Did you guys want some?- Well, we did.- Okay, we'll discuss this later.- Oh well.- I love the Fenty blotting powder,'cause it's something I can definitely doquickly in between stories.So the thing with the lights,[Kimberly sighs]they're kind of harsh.Especially with everybody'sTVs in 4G and all of this,they see everything.So you really have to blend.So I don't have hugediscrepancies and linesbetween the concealer, and foundation,and here and there, because you can tell.And viewers will tell you.I feel as if I have two different people,almost like Beyonce and Sasha Fierce,but clearly a little different.But when I'm on the news,I am in control of the situation,I'm thinking of the viewer at home.I am trying to servethem and make sure thateverything they need is put into the storyand delivered to them.And Kimberly at home isvery quiet, is an introvert.And so it really is adifferent thing for me.I'm not really sure whyI love this business,but there's somethingabout telling storiesthat just gets me.All of the words seem tomake everyone unnerved.- We go into this modeof being threatened.- We here at WBOC launched a seriesthat will hopefully spark conversation,talking about diversity.And my first story deals with why we hate,not even directly reallytalking about race,just why do we hate?I've always been that personto be forced to build bridges,and to talk about being different,while trying to navigatethat world myself,and trying to make peace with it.And not just make peace withit, but learn to love it.Just finished the newscastand I'm walking to my desk.We did it.You can see, there's nobody else here.That's what happens whenyou get in dark and early.They're counting down the next newscast.- [Announcer] In five, four, three, two.- 7:01.Sometimes we have thingsgoing on in our livesthat are bigger than just our career.- Authorities have identifiedone of the two cars,one, for killing the husbandof a former Fox 35 reporter and anchor.Kimberly Wiggins's husband,Rasheed, died late Saturday night.- Right after losingRasheed, my late husband,I really was on thiscrusade to try to catchtwo of the three hit and run drivers.And so I then had thetables turned on myself,where I was the personwho was interviewed.I was the lead, as opposedto trying to get the lead.Knowing that they have a make and a model,and there might be damage,and that someone reallymight've seen something then,or even later, is hopeful.That was also a hard lesson because I feltI wasn't taught that in J school.And really did believe,you were not supposed to be biased,and you're supposed tojust stick to the facts.But the hard part is life iscomplicated, and we are human.I remember the first timewe had a breaking news storyand it was a hit and run.And as soon as that red light went offfor that newscast, I bawled.There's something about losing a husband,losing someone who plays thishuge role in your daily life,that just shakes you to your core.Why the green room shenanigans?They were born out ofa place of deep pain.I first went back to work here at WBOCabout nine months afterRasheed was killed.And I was a wreck.I knew I had to figure out a wayto put on a good face for work.So I would blast music as loud as possibleand jam out to it, and it would help.It wouldn't be perfect,I wouldn't be in a perfectspace, but it would help.It's been a process.And I can say, a littlemore than four years out,I am light years awaythan where I was whenI first lost Rasheed.And so, in all of that,I started Still His,which is an organizationwhere really it was all aboutputting together these grief gift boxes.To send to the bereaved becausewe all need a little love.And that's what this is.Sending a little love.I just remarried.I married an incredible man.- I pronounce you two lawfully married.You may kiss the bride.- And it's so funnybecause if you would ask mefour years ago, if I was going to remarry,I mean the answer was an astounding no.That was a big lesson for me,is you can never tell Godwhat will or won't happen.When I least expected it,an old friend entered the picture.We're about to start ourlives at somewhat middle age.And feeling really excited about it.This relationship andthis part of my journeyhas been a lot.And so I took some time toprocess out of the public eye.And so when we were readyto share the pictures,and it was one of those thingswhere we had the wedding,and it was awesome.And we were just overflowingwith love and happiness that,you know, you're justbursting at the seams.You may have noticed, I changed my name.Why?Well, over the weekend I did a thing.I got married.The pandemic forced us to scraptwo sets of wedding plans.So we decided to jump thebroom virtually, on Zoom,on one of the biggest days of celebrationin the Black community, Juneteenth.So we just had to get everything out.And everybody's receivedit so incredibly well.And so that's been really awesome.All right, finished upwork in the newsroom.Now I am headed to the Universityof Maryland Eastern Shorein Princess Anne, to getready to teach class.I'm learning to scaleback, live a little bit.I'm teaching one class asemester as opposed to two.And finding some sort of balance.It's a little after nine A.M.Need to wipe down.And those are extra masksin case anybody needs one.So just finished sanitizing the classroom,I am going to put some tweakson my lecture right now.And work on a few thingsbefore it's time for class.Education's always beenreally important in my familyand something thatwe've always been taughtyou need to strive for, and to achieve.And so going to Duke was adream for so many reasons.After Duke, I was justtrying to find my way.And I knew I wanted to workin TV and to be a journalist.I loved my experience atColumbia Journalism School.It was hard, a hard ninemonths, very difficult,hard nine months, it'sonly a nine month program.So I've had a lot of goodopportunities presented to me.And great things to add to my resume.But most of the time itdidn't come easily to me.Had to work really hard.It's the best feeling ever.It's like 11:30.Getting home, close the garage.Lola, we're going inside.You happy to see me?- Hey!What's happening, honey?- [Kimberly] Is thatnormally what you say?- Lola, she's home.[Kimberly laughing]Wow!- Thank you.When I come home, I'llnormally have lunch, dinner.I'll do like scrambled eggsand some oven roasted red potatoes.And then I go and wash off my makeup.It takes a while to get it all off.And I feel like my skin just holds onto it'cause I also have large pores.And so I normally willuse some micellar wateras a first layer off.And then, I can'tremember what it's called,but it's, it's a solid thathelps remove your makeup.And I do use a Clarisonic.And I really love coconut oil,or the solid that youcan get in the store,especially if it's organic.And after I wash my faceand get everything out,a lot of times I willjust slather that on.And I can even use thaton my neck, and my hair,and all over, in my nails.And it's just ah, I love it.I've definitely had some emotional daysand gone through thingslike we all go through,on top of spreading the news.So that is a hard part too.When a lot of times you ingest all of thatand it's hard to turn it off.I really have had to focus onthat in the last few months.To come home, get outside,to play with my dog,and to just decompress.I am so tired today.It is not my goal togo to sleep right now,even though it's close to my bedtime.My ideal time to go to bed is 4:00 PM.That normally doesn't happen.But that's the time when I atleast try to slow things downand at least moving towards my room,and being quiet and still in there.So I'm gonna turn on some mindless TVand love me some 90 Day Fiance,and just try to zone out.One of the great thingsabout working in newsis you get used to just finding the calmin the midst of the storm.Trying to focus on what you can control,which is helpful in life,because there's a lot you can't.But, in this moment,and telling this story,and in talking to you, you cancontrol that, and be present.All right, it is 4:15 PM.I am pooped.I am in the bed early.And I'm going to bed.Goodnight kiddos.