Betty Nguyen is an American news anchor with NBC News and MSNBC. Prior to joining NBC in 2013, Nguyen worked for CBS News from 2010 to 2012, where she anchored the The CBS Morning News and was a correspondent for CBS This Morning.[1][2]

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Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam. She is of Vietnamese and Scottish descent. Nguyen and her family left Vietnam for the United States in April 1975. She grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and attended the University of Texas at Austin. Nguyen was a cheerleader during her younger days, and a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority in college.[3] Nguyen graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism.[4]

Betty joined CBS News in March 2010 from CNN where she previously worked for six years. At CBS News, she anchored the overnight newscast Up to the Minute and CBS Morning News. During her tenure there, she also substituted on the CBS Evening News with Russ Mitchell, along with Senior Business Correspondent Anthony Mason. From 2011 to 2012, she served as headline anchor of the Saturday edition of The Early Show and CBS This Morning Saturday. Betty Nguyen left CBS News in April 2012 following the April 6, 2012 edition of the CBS Morning News.[2]

Before becoming a network anchor and correspondent for CBS News, Nguyen anchored the weekend morning edition of CNN Newsroom. She spent six years at CNN covering major news events including the earthquake in Haiti, presidential elections in Africa, hurricane Katrina, the death of Pope John Paul II, and went on an undercover assignment in Myanmar. Prior to that, Nguyen was an anchor at KTVT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Dallas, where she covered numerous breaking news events, including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Nguyen began her career as a morning anchor and reporter at KWTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Waco, Texas.[1]

In 2007, the Smithsonian Institution recognized Nguyen as the first Vietnamese-American to anchor a national television news broadcast in the United States.[5] According to Maxim.com, Nguyen was named one of "TV´s 10 Hottest News Anchors" in 2008.[6] In 2011, she was listed as one of "The 10 Most Stylish Anchors & Reporters" by The Huffington Post.[7]

She spent a short time as a freelance correspondent for E! Entertainment Network. Nguyen has hosted several specials and was featured as a reporter on episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger. She can also be seen in Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts".[8]

Nguyen is a Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Cowboys fan as well as a fan of the Texas Longhorns, her alma mater.[9]

Fleeing Vietnam[edit]
Nguyen was "not even a year old" toward the end of the Vietnam War when her family fled South Vietnam.[10][11] From a CNN videotape, she speaks about her father.[12]

“ He was an American serviceman who fell in love with a Vietnamese college student. They married and had me, a child who was given life, when so many were losing theirs in the war.
On April 19, 1975, we fled Vietnam, crammed into a packed C-130 cargo plane. It was stepping into the unknown. Nothing was guaranteed except that turning back was not an option. And that meant leaving behind my grandparents…As hard as it was, fleeing not only saved my life, it gave me a new one, in a place called America.

”
Board Membership and Affiliations[edit]
Co-founder of Help the Hungry [13]
Member of the Asian American Journalists Association[5]
2003 Regional Emmy award for "Outstanding Noon Newscast"[14]
2003 Legacy of Women Award recipient at the 11th annual Legacy of Women awards luncheon[15]
2003 Great Women of Texas: Women of Influence Honoree, an honor presented by the Fort Worth Business Press [16]
2007 Golden Torch Award recipient, an honor from the Vietnamese American National Gala (VANG)[17]
2008 Outstanding Young Texas Exes Award recipient[18]
2008 My Hero recipient, which is CNN's internal Hero of the Year awards called My Heroes[19]
2009 Andrew Heiskell Community Service Award recipient at 28th annual Andrew Heiskell Community Service awards luncheon[20]
2010 ZTA Foundation Outstanding Alumna Award [21]


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Betty Nguyen is an award-winning journalist whose work has taken her across the globe. In March 2010, she joined CBS News as an anchor and correspondent, contributing to the network’s broadcasts and platforms, including The Early Show.

Before joining CBS News, Nguyen served as anchor of the weekend morning edition of CNN Newsroom since 2004. During this time, she anchored the network's coverage of major news events, including the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI's first papal visit to the United States in 2008, the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, the death of Pope John Paul II in April 2005, and the London bombing attacks in July 2005.  Nguyen also anchored portions of CNN's coverage of the tsunami disaster in South Asia, the Iraqi elections in January 2005 and the June 2004 handover of sovereignty to Iraq.

Nguyen traveled to Constitución, Mexico in 2009 to cover the damage caused by Hurricane Jimena.  In 2008, she reported from Houston and Galveston, Texas during Hurricane Ike.  Also that year, she went undercover in Myanmar for a series of exclusive reports that exposed a lack of aid after Cyclone Nargis killed more than 140,000 people.  Nguyen traveled to Africa in 2007 to cover the presidential elections in Sierra Leone, the political and economic crises in Zimbabwe and apartheid-era prosecutions in South Africa.

In September 2005, Nguyen reported and anchored from the Houston Astrodome, where thousands sought shelter after Hurricane Katrina.  Later that month, she went on assignment in her birth country of Vietnam to cover the deadly flooding caused by annual monsoons.

Before joining CNN, Nguyen was an anchor at KTVT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Dallas, where she covered numerous breaking news events, including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.  She also served as a freelance correspondent for E! Entertainment Television during the 2003 California gubernatorial election. Nguyen began her career as a morning anchor and reporter at KWTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Waco, Texas.

In 2007, the Smithsonian Institute recognized Nguyen as the first Vietnamese-American to anchor a national television news broadcast in the United States. In 2003, Nguyen won a regional Emmy Award for "Outstanding Noon Newscast," and received an Associated Press Award in 1998 for breaking news coverage.  

She is also the co-founder of Help the Hungry, a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian aid to poverty-stricken families.

Nguyen graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. In 2008, she received the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award.

http://www.bettynguyen.org/