Wnem anchor Meg McLeod prepares for her final day on March 20
Meg McLeod put the news down long enough to write directly to viewers, laying out a decision that has been forming through “reflection, ” “many tears, ” and conversations that changed how she sees her life. In that message, she said wnem viewers in Mid-Michigan will soon see her for the last time in her role as a local TV news anchor. McLeod wrote that her final day at the Saginaw-based station is scheduled for Friday, March 20.
Meg McLeod and a goodbye written to Mid-Michigan
McLeod described leaving as “incredibly difficult, ” adding that what weighs on her most is feeling as though she is letting “my community” down. She also expressed appreciation to the people who watched and followed her work, writing that she could not “adequately express” her thanks for viewers and for “this beautiful place we call home. ”
In another post described as “A Love Letter to Mid-Michigan, ” McLeod reflected on how the region became more than a stop in a career path. She wrote that she once saw the Flint and Saginaw area market as a stepping stone, expecting a short stint before moving back to the East Coast. Instead, she wrote, her time in Michigan turned into more than a decade of building friendships, meeting people, and trying each day to serve viewers with the news.
The goodbye also makes clear what she believes local news has meant in her life. “I have been unbelievably fortunate to live out my passion for local news, ” she wrote, urging people to “continue to support your local journalists long after I’ve put the mic down. ”
WNEM TV-5, March 20, and the family time McLeod says she wants back
McLeod’s departure is set for Friday, March 20, at the Saginaw-based station where her online biography says she first joined in July 2014. She is a Missouri native, and before arriving in Saginaw she worked as an anchor and reporter at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri.
Her announcement focused less on professional ambition than on the shape of daily life. McLeod wrote she is looking forward to spending more time with her family. She married former WNEM TV-5 reporter Andrew Keller and gave birth to their son in November 2025.
In her message, she sketched the practical details behind the decision: being home for her son’s bath and bedtime, seeing Andrew more than “twice a week (if I’m lucky), ” and learning again what “Friday night” means to most people. McLeod also said she hopes to reveal “what’s next” for her “in the next few weeks. ”
Mid-Michigan roles beyond the anchor desk, and what comes next
For viewers, McLeod’s presence has extended beyond the nightly broadcast. Along with her anchor work at WNEM TV-5, she has served as an emcee at community events, including the YWCA Women of Achievement Awards and the Midland Child Advocacy Center.
Online reaction was already taking shape as the announcement circulated, with fans sharing memories. The tone of the posts, though, stayed rooted in McLeod’s own accounting of the transition: gratitude for the place she has lived and worked, and a difficult step away from a job she said she deeply loves.
One earlier moment also appeared in the public conversation around her decision. She indicated in October of last year that she may not seek to renew her contract with the station after her former co-anchor David Custer won his retaliation lawsuit against the Saginaw news outlet. In her March message, she did not lay out detailed reasons beyond the reflection and personal shift she described, but she signaled that she plans to explain more soon.
For now, the next confirmed milestone remains the one McLeod put in writing: Friday, March 20. Her note to Mid-Michigan closes the loop on what began as a career stop and became a life. She has asked viewers to keep supporting local journalists after she steps away, and she has promised another update in the next few weeks—after, as she put it, she’s home for bath, bedtime, and the routines she has been missing.
