Frank Somerville is ‘Cool’ Again & He’s Letting the World Know
Anyone who’s watched cable news in the Bay Area over the last 30 years is familiar with Frank Somerville, he was a news anchor on KTVU beginning in 1992.
But despite covering thousands of news stories over the years, a lot of the time it’s the worst news that goes viral. You can win three Emmys including one for best on-camera news anchor, as Sommerveile did, but if you have big, public fuck-ups, that’s what can end up being your legacy.
When the Bay’s KTVU ‘FOX Channel 2’ made national news in 2013 after it read made-up and incredibly inappropriate Asian names on air following a tragic plane crash, Frank stepped up to apologize on behalf of the station for the gaffe, even though the joke names were written by an intern (who was subsequently fired) and Frank had nothing to do with the mistake. So in many ways, Frank was the face of that newsroom, and unafraid to step up during hard times, and that took real courage.
Lately though, Frank’s had a rough time.
Frank famously had a very bad year in 2021. After Somerville began slurring his words during a newscast in May of that year many accused him of being drunk on the job. A video clip of the newscast racked up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Frank denied drinking on the job.
Then Frank took a leave of absence and went to rehab, but was back on the air that summer, before getting suspended shortly after returning to KTVU over issues with how FOX was covering the disappearance of Gabby Petito.
Somerville, who has an adopted black daughter, expressed that the media covers tragedies involving white women more than those involving Black and brown women. “I thought the coverage across the country of Gabby Petito was insane,” he told KRON4. “There was no reason for it other than she was a cute white kid. But for some reason, I was suspended over that. I still, to this day, am not sure why.”
That also took real courage.
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But then, that December Somerville made national news when he rear-ended a car in his black Porsche, Somerville continued driving until he slammed into a pole at Grand Avenue and Broadway. After his very public arrest for DUI, Sommerville apologized to everyone and explained in an interview, “I got trashed in my apartment, and I wanted to go to Taco Bell.”
A few weeks after his drunk hit-and-run, Frank was served divorce papers by his wife of 20+ years. So yeah, that was a rough year for Frank.
In June of 2023, Sommerville was famously arrested twice in one night in Berkeley for alcohol-related charges. The first arrest came after police were called to respond to a family altercation at his brother’s house, Somerville was arrested on suspicion of criminal threats, public intoxication, assault and a probation violation. After he was released, he went back to the residence and was consequently arrested again on suspicion of DUI and violating his probation.
But today, Frank is flexing on Facebook, saying that he’s “6 months clean and sober.” You can read his post below, and admire his guns. As he says in his post, “Pretty cool that I can rock a compression muscle shirt at 65 years old and not embarrass my two daughters.”
That is more than cool Frank, that is truly a miraculous feat.
Frank’s Post 12/6/23:
Via Frank’s Facebook Post:
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