Maria Elena Salinas Joins CBS News as a Contributor

Maria Elena Salinas is headed to The Eye Network

The 64-year-old Mexican American journalist, a longtime former Univision anchor, is joining CBS News as a contributor.

Maria Elena Salinas

Susan Zirinsky,CBS News President and senior executive producer, said Salinas will deliver reports for multiple broadcasts and platforms and will be a frequent presence in 2020 election coverage.

Salinas, called the “Voice of Hispanic America” by The New York Times, is best known for co-anchoring Univision’s flagship evening news program for more than 30 years. 

She has interviewed world leaders and covered a wide range of national and international events, netting multiple Emmys, a Peabody Awardand many others over the years. 

Since leaving Univision in 2017, she has hosted The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas on Investigation Discoveryand covered the 2018 presidential election in Mexico for Telemundo.

“It is an honor to welcome Maria Elena Salinas to the CBS News team,” said Zirinsky. “We look forward to sharing her important voice and journalistic credentials with our audience in a critical time for this country.”

In 2016, Salinas reported for CBS Sunday Morningon the role Hispanics would play in that year’s election.

From 2001 to 2011, Salinas wrote a weekly syndicated column in both English and Spanish. She’s also the author of the 2006 autobiography, I Am My Father’s Daughter, Living a Life Without Secrets.

Salinas began her journalism career in 1981 as a reporter, anchor and public affairs host for KMEX-TVUnivision’s LA affiliate.