Another high-profile Chicago TV news reporter is changing channels in the latest talent raid by NBC 5.
Paris Schutz, who spent the last two years as lead political correspondent at WFLD-Ch. 32, is leaving the Fox station and joining WMAQ-Ch. 5 as a general assignment reporter beginning Monday. Focusing on investigative and political stories, Schutz will also contribute to NBC 5’s digital platforms, the station announced Tuesday.
“Paris has long been one of Chicago’s most trusted, deeply sourced journalists,” Sally Ramirez, senior vice president of news at NBC 5/Telemundo Chicago, said in a news release. “His reporting is tough, fair, and drives the conversations that matter most in this city.”
A homegrown talent who cut his teeth at WTTW-Ch. 11, Schutz was tapped in 2024 to replace Mike Flannery at Fox 32, the last stop for one of Chicago’s longest-tenured political reporters. Schutz made the most of a short stint at the Fox-owned station, serving as the primary political reporter and hosting everything from debates to election night coverage.
His last day on the air at Fox 32 was April 22.
“NBC 5 was the news station of record in my household growing up,” Schutz said in the news release. “I fell in love with this business because I watched legends like Carol Marin, Ron Magers, Warner Saunders, Allison Rosati, Phil Rogers, Dick Kay, Chuck Goudie, and Mary Ann Ahern.”
Schutz, 43, joins a growing talent lineup at NBC 5, which recently added former Sun-Times film and TV critic Richard Roeper as entertainment reporter, and in January lured Lou Canellis over from Fox 32 as lead sports anchor.
A native of west suburban River Forest and a Syracuse University graduate, Schutz spent 15 years at WTTW-Ch. 11, rising from intern to co-anchor and chief correspondent of “Chicago Tonight,” the public TV station’s signature news program.
A talented musician, Schutz also composed the oft-played theme of “Chicago Tonight,” part of his post-millennium legacy at the station. A new chapter for the Emmy Award-winning journalist and one-time TV news wunderkind begins next week at NBC 5.
“It feels like a dream come true, an epic challenge, and a homecoming all in one,” Schutz said in the news release. “I can’t wait to get to work reporting on the issues and stories that impact our lives as Chicagoans.”
Schutz joins NBC 5 anchors Allison Rosati and Stefan Holt, new sports anchor Canellis, meteorologist Brant Miller and dozens of reporters, editors and other staffers at the station’s new $70 million newsroom, which was consolidated in January from five floors into one 70,000-square-foot space on the formerly vacant second floor of NBC Tower, once the home to “The Jerry Springer Show.”
NBC 5 Chicago shares the space with Spanish-language sister station Telemundo Chicago and the national NBC News Chicago Bureau.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
