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The national Emmy award-winning Diann Burns is one of the nation’s most recognizable TV news journalists. For nearly 25 years she has informed Chicago viewers about “what’s haute, what’s not, who got caught, who got shot, who got married, who got arrested, who got elected,” and every kind of news story. Diann has received 1 national EMMY and 10 regional EMMY awards for various reports and news coverage. From 2003 to early 2008 she anchored the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. news at CBS 2/WBBM.
Before working at CBS 2 CHICAGO, Diann was co-anchor of WLS-TV's top rated 5:00 PM and 10:00 PM newscasts. She was Chicago's first African-American woman to serve as lead anchor of a 10:00 PM news broadcast.
She joined WLS-TV in 1985 as a general assignment reporter and was quickly promoted to weekend anchor. Previously, Diann worked at the Independent Network News of New York as a field producer and reporter. Before that she served as sports editor, photographer and reporter at the Cleveland Call and Post. She began her journalism career as a general assignment reporter with the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Throughout her career, Diann has covered several historic world news events for Chicago, including South African President Nelson Mandela's first visit to the United States, the United States' aid to Somalia during the famine crisis in the 1990s, four national political conventions and the funerals of Mayor Harold Washington and football legend Walter Payton.
This journalist is known to Chicago area viewers for her groundbreaking news reports. Her investigation into how DNA science plays a role in solving local crimes was later picked up by the Chicago Sun-Times. Diann was the first local television journalist to report on the legal impact of the AIDS epidemic on crime. She broke the story of a disc jockey at a popular radio station who was later convicted of drugging and molesting his under age babysitter. Diann is also credited with numerous exclusive interviews, including the man who was later convicted of killing Michael Jordan's father, two Chicago Bears football players accused of using drugs, and newsmakers Jerry Krause, R. Kelly and Mike Tyson.
Diann is active in several community organizations and over the years has donated her time and efforts to more than a hundred charities. She has an undergraduate degree in Politics and Mass Communications from Cleveland State University and a Masters degree from Columbia University in New York's Graduate School of Journalism.
Diann, her husband Marc Watts, and their son live on Chicago's north side.