Dina Pugliese to leave Citytv's Breakfast Television after 16 years
Author of the article:Jane Stevenson
Published Feb 15, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read
A familiar face on morning television in Toronto and Canada is saying goodbye.
Breakfast Television co-host Dina Pugliese announced on air Wednesday morning that she is leaving the Citytv show, which begins with a local broadcast before going coast-to-coast, after 16 years.
Pugliese’s last appearance will be on Feb. 24.
“I have decided it is my time to step down and leave the show,” Pugliese announced on BT Wednesday morning with co-host Sid Seixeiro seated on the couch beside her. “I’ll tell you this didn’t happen overnight, this has been a feeling I’ve had for a while now.”
Pugliese said the hours for the show, which she later called “exhausting,” never got easier.
She said when she began BT she got up at 4 a.m. but during the pandemic that time moved to 1:30 a.m. and now “it’s consistently been 2:30 a.m., sometimes I push it to 3 a.m. And I find more and more it has taken a mental and physical toll.”
Pugliese said her next step including spending quality time with family, travelling with her husband and dedicating energy to her clean beauty line, The Care Principle, the latter which she said, “was really for my family that was going through health issues.”
Pugliese thanked her BT co-workers and viewers over the years for supporting her.
“This is where I get emotional but we’re always going to be family,” she said tearing up.
“I said I wasn’t going to cry, because it’s a good thing. All I am is tossing out my 2:30 a.m. alarm clock and that’s it. This bond is way too special.”
Seixeiro, formerly of the Tim & Sid TV-radio show on Sportsnet, thanked Pugliese for helping him get his job two years ago.
“I would not have gotten this job were it not for you,” he said. “In 2020 I was in a bad place professionally — not a good place. First week of November I went for an audition with you, you were exhausted, and you were so giving and caring and you’ve changed my life.”
Pugliese, who said later said she was “a little burnt out,” credited past BT co-anchor Kevin Frankish (1991-2018) with encouraging her to join BT in the first place when she felt she was too scared to share her life with viewers.
“He said, ‘D, you only have to share what you want to share which is your positivity, and the fact that you love to run jokes, act crazy. We all need that. ‘Cause we need to laugh. And that’s all you got to do. That’s it.’ And I was like, ‘OK,’ and I trusted him. He said it was the right fit and Kevin Frankish, you were right.”
Pugliese grew up in Woodbridge, Ont., and attended York University and Humber College for Journalism.
Her first job was as associate producer of Global TV’s The Bynon Show before becoming entertainment reporter-writer-producer of Toronto 1’s morning show, Toronto Today.
She then hosted The A-List and Star!’s Star! Daily before joining Citytv’s BT.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Jane Stevenson
Published Feb 15, 2023 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read
A familiar face on morning television in Toronto and Canada is saying goodbye.
Breakfast Television co-host Dina Pugliese announced on air Wednesday morning that she is leaving the Citytv show, which begins with a local broadcast before going coast-to-coast, after 16 years.
Pugliese’s last appearance will be on Feb. 24.
“I have decided it is my time to step down and leave the show,” Pugliese announced on BT Wednesday morning with co-host Sid Seixeiro seated on the couch beside her. “I’ll tell you this didn’t happen overnight, this has been a feeling I’ve had for a while now.”
Pugliese said the hours for the show, which she later called “exhausting,” never got easier.
She said when she began BT she got up at 4 a.m. but during the pandemic that time moved to 1:30 a.m. and now “it’s consistently been 2:30 a.m., sometimes I push it to 3 a.m. And I find more and more it has taken a mental and physical toll.”
Pugliese said her next step including spending quality time with family, travelling with her husband and dedicating energy to her clean beauty line, The Care Principle, the latter which she said, “was really for my family that was going through health issues.”
Pugliese thanked her BT co-workers and viewers over the years for supporting her.
“This is where I get emotional but we’re always going to be family,” she said tearing up.
“I said I wasn’t going to cry, because it’s a good thing. All I am is tossing out my 2:30 a.m. alarm clock and that’s it. This bond is way too special.”
Seixeiro, formerly of the Tim & Sid TV-radio show on Sportsnet, thanked Pugliese for helping him get his job two years ago.
“I would not have gotten this job were it not for you,” he said. “In 2020 I was in a bad place professionally — not a good place. First week of November I went for an audition with you, you were exhausted, and you were so giving and caring and you’ve changed my life.”
Pugliese, who said later said she was “a little burnt out,” credited past BT co-anchor Kevin Frankish (1991-2018) with encouraging her to join BT in the first place when she felt she was too scared to share her life with viewers.
“He said, ‘D, you only have to share what you want to share which is your positivity, and the fact that you love to run jokes, act crazy. We all need that. ‘Cause we need to laugh. And that’s all you got to do. That’s it.’ And I was like, ‘OK,’ and I trusted him. He said it was the right fit and Kevin Frankish, you were right.”
Pugliese grew up in Woodbridge, Ont., and attended York University and Humber College for Journalism.
Her first job was as associate producer of Global TV’s The Bynon Show before becoming entertainment reporter-writer-producer of Toronto 1’s morning show, Toronto Today.
She then hosted The A-List and Star!’s Star! Daily before joining Citytv’s BT.
Dina Pugliese to leave Citytv's Breakfast Television after 16 years
A familiar face on morning television in Toronto and Canada is saying goodbye.
