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Roop Raj
Anchor Huel Perkins, retiring Friday after 33 years at Fox 2, has told managers who he recommends as a successor.
"Roop Raj should be the new anchor at Fox 2," Perkins said in an interview with Deadline Detroit. "That's what I believe now, and I said that to any and everybody. In fact I've told my bosses and I told him."
Perkins, 67, who is leaving at the same time as longtime co-anchor Monica Gayle, said he has input on his replacement, but not the final say.
He said he has known Raj, 45, a long time. Raj came to the station in 2009 and is the 5 p.m. anchor.
"A 16-year-old kid named Roop Raj used to call me incessantly to be on his cable show. He may have been only 14." Perkins said he went on Raj's show in Troy.
"This young man at 14 was amazing, and at 14 he knew exactly what he wanted to do, and I have watched him over the decades grow in terms of his skills and and his reporting and his interviewing, and he is phenomenal," Perkins said. "I think he's gonna be great."
He declined to comment on who might replace Gayle. In the past, the name that has surfaced is Taryn Asher, who co-anchors the 5 p.m. newscast with Raj.
Roop Raj and Taryn Asher
Mort Meisner, a talent agent who represents Asher, said he thinks both Raj and Asher are probable replacements, but he's not heard a final decision. Meisner is a former news director at the station.
Raj did not return a call for comment.
A Fox 2 spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline Detroit on Monday night about Perkins and Gayle: "An internal and external search is underway for their replacement."
