Ilia Calderón named co-anchor of ‘Noticiero Univision,’ succeeding María Elena Salinas

Ilia Calderón will be the new co-anchor of Spanish-language network Univision’s nightly newscast “Noticiero Univision.�

Univision announced Wednesday that Calderón will join Jorge Ramos next month on the program, succeeding his longtime co-anchor María Elena Salinas.

Salinas announced in August that she was stepping down from the program and ending her 36-year run at Univision. Salinas will have a program on true-crime network Investigation Discovery next year.

According to Univision, Calderón is the first Afro-Latina to anchor a national newscast in the U.S. She is a native of the Chocó region of Colombia.

As a correspondent for the Univision newsmagazine program “Aquí y Ahora,� Calderón had a viral video moment this year with her interview of Ku Klux Klan leader Chris Barker. Calderón stood firm as Barker told her she was the first black person ever to set foot on his North Carolina property, used a racial slur to describe her and threatened to “burn you out.�

Calderón, 45, was a local and national anchor in her home country until 2001, when she moved to Miami to join Spanish-language network Telemundo. She was an anchor at Telemundo until joining Univision in 2007. She has been an anchor on Univision’s “Primer Impacto� and “Noticiero Univision: Edición Nocturna.�

In addition to “Noticiero Univision,� Calderón will co-host “Aquí y Ahora,� which airs Sunday nights, alongside Teresa Rodríguez.

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Twitter: @SteveBattaglio