Noémi Mercier, Lisa-Marie Blais, Michel Bherer and Meeker Guerrier announced as News Anchors for Noovo

MONTRÉAL (December 2, 2020) – Noovo announced today the team of experienced anchors that will helm its news programming beginning in Spring 2021. Noémi Mercier will present the national and Montréal news on weekday evenings. Lisa-Marie Blais will anchor the weekday evening and late-night news for the Québec City, Mauricie, Estrie and Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean regions. Michel Bherer will present late-night news for Montréal, while Meeker Guerrier will host the network’s weekend shows.

“More than ever, Québec needs more editorial diversity. The arrival of Noovo as part of Bell Media promotes healthy competition in the province, benefiting the entire Québec TV ecosystem,” said Karine Moses, President, Bell Media Québec, and Bell’s Vice-Chair, Québec. “With the creation of our Noovo newsroom, Bell Media is upholding its commitment to offering enhanced information and entertainment programming across all its platforms.”

“This is one of the biggest hiring campaigns in Québec’s news business in recent years,” added Jean-Philippe Pineault, General Manager, News and Information, Bell Media. “For both the journalism field and Québec audiences, this is a unique opportunity to diversify the voices who report on what’s happening throughout the province. Noovo is a multi-platform brand that’s engaging, authentic, contemporary, and inclusive. We are building a strong, reliable news team based on this philosophy.”

Noémi Mercier | Anchor, Weekday Evening News, National and Montréal
A host and correspondent on Télé-Québec, Noémi has also written feature articles and columns for L’actualité magazine since 2010. She has won numerous journalism honours, including six gold medals at the Canadian Magazine Awards and three Judith-Jasmin Awards.  

Lisa-Marie Blais | Anchor, Weekday Evening and Late-Night News, Québec City, Mauricie, Estrie, and Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean
A news anchor and co-host on LCN until very recently, Lisa-Marie is a Québec City native with a strong attachment to her home region. A dedicated host and interviewer, she has worked in the media field for 20 years. Notably, she was one of the hosts of the show ÇA COMMENCE BIEN on V from 2013 to 2015.

Michel Bherer | Anchor, Weekday Late-Night News, Montréal
Michel has almost 20 years of experience in the news world, including 10 as a TV anchor on Radio-Canada in Saskatchewan and Québec. Keenly aware of the significant responsibility and privilege that comes with his profession, he has contributed to numerous shows on ICI RDI as a host and reporter since 2010.

Meeker Guerrier | Anchor, Weekend News, National
Passionate about news, culture and sports, Meeker rapidly made a name for himself in the media world. After a notable stint as a correspondent on ICI Radio-Canada Télé and ICI Première, Meeker has been co-hosting the morning show on 107.3 Rouge since August. He also appears on LA SEMAINE DES 4 JULIE (Noovo) and the shows LE 5 À 7 and LES 3 ÉTOILES (RDS).

A Growing Team
Over the past few weeks, Noovo has also filled various key production-related positions. These include:

• Emilie Beaulieu will make decisions on daily news content. Before moving to Noovo, Emilie was editor-in-chief at Radio-Canada.
• Dominik Paulin will manage news department operations. He joins the Noovo team with over 20 years of experience in TV production, including a number of years at TVA. Dominik previously held the position of senior manager of production operations at Radio-Canada.
• Mick Côté is in charge of determining digital news strategy as well as developing original multi-platform segments. Before joining the Noovo team, Mick was responsible for digital distribution strategy at URBANIA.
• Catherine Mauffette will serve as a content producer. Until very recently, she was editor-in-chief at La Presse Canadienne.
• Ariane Lafrenière will also be a content producer. She was previously a news desk editor at TVA and LCN.

Further announcements about Noovo’s news department will follow during the coming weeks. As previously reported, a newsroom in Montréal and studio in Québec City are currently under construction. Noovo is currently recruiting journalists at each of its stations, which are located in Montréal, Québec City, Mauricie, Estrie and Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean.

About Noovo
Noovo is the network that does things differently! Reality TV, comedy, variety, and fiction from here and abroad: Noovo’s rich, entertaining and unifying programming offers an escape from everyday life. Noovo shatters the conventional television model by offering content on all platforms, for everyone, everywhere, all the time. A division of Bell Media, Noovo includes television stations in Montréal, Québec, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, and Trois-Rivières, as well as affiliates stations in Gatineau, Rivière-du-Loup and Val-d'Or. The network’s ad-supported VOD service Noovo.ca provides access to all of the brand's original programming in addition to exclusive content. To explore the Noovo universe, visit noovo.ca.

About Bell Media in Québec
Bell Media is a leading content creation company with premier assets in Québec in television, radio, digital media, out-of-home, and more. Bell Media operates a number of French-language TV services in Québec including Noovo (with five corporate-owned local stations, three network affiliates, and Noovo.ca), as well as eight specialty and pay TV services - Canal D, Canal Vie, Z, VRAK, Investigation, SUPER ÉCRAN, Cinépop, and RDS, Québec’s #1 sports channel. Bell Media currently has three of the Top 5 most-watched shows on French Entertainment Specialty in key demos, including six of the Top 10 original productions. Bell Media also operates CTV Montreal (the #1 English news outlet in Québec), and develops and operates websites, apps, and online platforms for its news, sports, and entertainment brands, including RDS Direct. Bell Media owns Crave, the only Canadian bilingual video streaming service, offering more than 7,200 hours of exclusive French-language content. Bell Media is Québec’s leading radio broadcaster, with 25 stations in 13 communities, all part of the iHeartRadio Canada brand and streaming service. Bell Media owns Montréal-based Astral, an out-of-home advertising network of 50,000 faces in five provinces. Bell Media is part of BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), Canada’s largest communications company. Learn more at BellMedia.ca.