trio

You can’t keep a beloved news team down, even after more than a decade since being yanked off the air in a move that stunned fans and local TV newsrooms.

For almost 20 years, KTTV Fox 11’s “Good Day L.A.” was hosted by Steve Edwards, Dorothy Lucey and Jillian Barberie, becoming a dominant fixture in the fiercely competitive morning show arena. The show’s popularity for a time outdistanced network morning shows and crosstown rivals “The KTLA Morning News.”

The trio’s freewheeling banter spiced with humorous mayhem and mischief enchanted legions of viewers while bringing freshness to the familiar formula of news, weather and sports. The distinct personalities meshed effortlessly — veteran newsman Edwards, relentlessly upbeat co-host Lucey and fiery weather reporter Barberie, who injected the proceedings with outrageous, at times crass comments along with declarations that “my breasts are real.”

An undercurrent of friction brought an edge to the breezy vibe, with Edwards often acting as the awkward buffer between Lucey and Barberie, who did little to disguise their dislike of each other. Barberie would go on to bash Lucey on Howard Stern’s radio show, calling her “very Christian and Bible-thumpy.” Lucey was frequently distraught by Barberie’s “mean.”

But that winning combination was broken up starting in May 2012, when Lucey was fired as part of a show revamp. Barberie was let go four months later after declining a demotion. And after continuing with other co-hosts, Edwards vanished from the show in December 2017 after allegations of sexual harassment, but there was never an official explanation from him or management about the reason for his departure. The exits sparked a wave of protests from viewers and celebrities, including Suzanne Somers, Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell of “American Idol.”

Dorothy Lucey, left, Steve Edwards and Jillian Barberie in 2001 on the set of Fox 11’s “Good Day L.A.”

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

But good days have returned for the former “Good Day L.A.” hosts. More than a decade after being let go, Edwards, Lucey and Barberie are fired up about their new venture.

The trio has reunited for “So Unanchored,” a weekly podcast fueled by spontaneous riffs on their years together, pop culture and their deep friendship. As they did on “Good Day L.A.,” they consistently interrupt one another and the chatter careens from one topic to the next without a breath. Complete sentences are rare.

“We have not missed a beat,” Edwards said as he, Lucey and Barberie relaxed in an office lounge after a recent taping. “It’s the most effortless thing. It makes us very happy when we get together. There’s an endorphin thing going on.”

“And we like each other more,” added Lucey.

They will tape a special live episode Wednesday at 11 a.m.. New episodes usually appear on Fridays.

The shattering of the “Good Day L.A.” team was particularly traumatic for Barberie, the breakout star of the trio. In addition to getting divorced after the Fox 11 job, she was later sideswiped by financial woes and a devastating health scare.

“I lost my job, got divorced and got cancer all at the same time,” said Barberie, her voice cracking as she sat near Edwards and Lucey in the lounge. “The fact that these two were a constant in my life during those 12 years when I was going through all those things is everything. I’m so grateful.”

Of course, there are major differences from their previous collaboration. While “Good Day L.A.” was broadcast at Fox 11’s massive West Los Angeles studio, “So Unanchored” is a no-frills affair staged at a Canoga Park office park.

The hosts sit in a small office, backed by nondescript office furniture and a framed poster of the vintage “Please Stand By” image broadcast by stations when there were technical difficulties.

Lucey, left, Edwards and Barberie in the Canoga Park office where they tape their podcast, “So Unanchored.”

(Annie Noelker/For The Times)

On their initial podcast, Barberie made it clear that there is no love lost when it comes to her former employer.

“I don’t want anything associated with that show,” she said. “Let’s start fresh, man. They used us and they treated us like s— at the end. Who needs them? Goodbye!”

The other major shift is the relationship between Lucey and Barberie.

“Dorothy and I love each other now,” Barberie said on one episode.

Lucey: “We do. Because the last time you saw us, we really didn’t like each other.”

Barberie: “And Steve has never been happier.”

Edwards: “You two are like sisters. You used to be like brothers — Cain and Abel.”

Barberie: “And then something happened between the three of us that got her and I close, and then I got cancer. She took me to all of my surgeries and took care of me. I’m telling you, it’s a beautiful thing.”

Lucey: “We still hate Steve, though.”

Barberie: “We have that in common.”

The burying of the hatchet is a great relief for Edwards, who was troubled by the tension between his colleagues during their time on “Good Day L.A.”

Barberie pressed Edwards on their first podcast: “Be honest, Steve. Did you like it when we didn’t get along?”

Edwards: “Sometimes it would get ugly and my stomach would turn.”

On “So Unanchored,” Barberie has revived her loose cannon role in their dynamic, raw and unfiltered. She will tear up, and moments later throw her head back with an explosive laugh that bounces off the studio walls.

She detailed her wild lifestyle during her TV days: “From 34 to 40, I was single, had five TV jobs, partied like a rock star, dated anyone I wanted and made a s—load of money.”

Though she eventually landed a talk show on KABC-AM 790 after leaving Fox 11, hard times hit in 2019 as she tried to make ends meet while raising two children as a divorced mom battling cancer.

“When I lost everything, I literally collapsed on my money manager’s table. I was bald and I started crying,” she said.

She listed her ranch-style Tarzana home, which was featured in “MTV Cribs,” for $2.5 million in 2021. She currently rents “a beautiful little apartment way out in Thousand Oaks. I love it and my life is quieter.”

Barberie was more explicit on the podcast: “I haven’t dated in 10 years. I have no tinglies down there. I’m dead from the waist down. I don’t want to date. I don’t want a man, an ape beside me at night if I’m having a hot flash. I have no nipples. I have no desire to cook, sit and talk with you. I don’t care.”

Edwards: “So you’re saying there’s a chance.”

Since leaving “Good Day L.A.,” Barberie, left, and Lucey have developed a close friendship. Edwards, standing center, said, “You two are like sisters. You used to be like brothers — Cain and Abel.”

(Annie Noelker / For The Times)

Scott Sternberg, whose production company produces “So Unanchored,” said “Good Day L.A.” was a clear standout on the morning show spectrum.

“There was something different about ‘Good Day L.A.’ from the other shows,” Sternberg said in a phone interview. “Their personalities were all different, but they could finish each other’s sentences and were not afraid to say what they wanted to say. I felt if I could bring them back together, there would be a huge audience who remembered them fondly.”

Asked to define the magic of their chemistry, Edwards said it was not instantaneous.

“At the time, there were five morning shows, including the network,” he said. “It took years for our thing to happen, but when it did, it happened big. We could do no wrong for 10 years. The ratings were crazy good. There was a run for many years when we were No. 1. We made them a lot of money.”

He continued: “Success is based on the relationship between the people on the show and the audience. Once that is established, it doesn’t matter if the show is good or bad that day. I was going through a lot with these two [Lucey and Barberie], and the audience was doing it with us. But the suits don’t care about that.”

The first indication that the show was in trouble came in 2017, when a new management team initiated a revamp of the morning show.

Lucey wrote at the time in her blog “God and Gossip” that her new boss told her that her voice, which has a trace of raspiness, “made his eyes bleed. Not the crusty yucky pink eye. New guy was saying when I spoke I made his eyes bleed. I have read that can happen after you vomit. Now I could almost see my husband saying something like that to me … But from a new boss…”

But station executives did not express regrets about dismissing Lucey, saying in a statement after her ouster: “The revitalization of ‘Good Day L.A.’ has been refreshing.”

Months later, Barberie was approached about taking a reduced role as a field reporter. She turned it down. Edwards’ departure caused a bigger stir because it was so abrupt. KTTV would say only that he was no longer employed by the station.

“Fox never issued a statement, and I never issued a statement,” Edwards said. “Obviously there was not agreement on what happened.”

As they prepared to leave the lounge, the three hugged each other warmly and said they were looking forward to getting together the following week.

“There is one word for us being back together,” Barberie said. “Home.”

Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we’re just one month out from fall camp and the start of Lincoln Riley’s fifth season at USC. Soon enough, we’ll have actual football to discuss and not just the existential crises surrounding it.

But while the college sports calendar remains dormant for the moment, summer basketball practice is in full swing at USC. The Times was there at Galen Center last week to get an idea of where the Trojans stand heading into a critical third season for Eric Musselman as coach. And I came away feeling like this is the most talented team the Trojans have had in quite some time.

What that will mean come March, I wouldn’t even attempt to speculate at this point. It’s June. This team has been together only a couple of weeks. Plans are bound to change. And injuries are bound to happen.*

*I do feel safe in assuming whatever ancient curse or voodoo hex was cast long ago on USC basketball can’t possibly derail another season like it did the last one.**

**OK, so transfer center Eric Reibe aggravating an injury in June and sitting out the summer isn’t … ideal. And sure, neither is the fact that transfer guard KJ Lewis won’t be cleared from the ankle injury he suffered in February until “hopefully mid-to-late September,” per Musselman. But still no freak car accidents, sudden cardiac incidents or bizarre player dismissals to date …

But Musselman has all the makings of a roster that should — read: must — make it to March.

The difference isn’t so much in what USC added to its roster, but rather in who Musselman and his staff managed to retain from the previous one. That was USC’s primary focus coming into the offseason.

Instead of having to rebuild an entire team from scratch like in Musselman’s first two seasons, which proved much more difficult than expected, the Trojans brought back their three top returning players: Rodney Rice, Alijah Arenas and Jacob Cofie.

“Those three are a great start for us,” Musselman said last week, and alluded to losing two transfers last year. “We learned with Wes [Yates] and [Desmond Claude], that hurt us.”

The continuity is significant. At least two of those returners will be starters, with a full year in Musselman’s system, and all three could be drafted next spring if they have strong seasons.

It starts with Rice, the guard who through six games last season looked like a bona fide rising star. His shoulder injury ended up totally changing the Trojans’ trajectory. His return should be equally impactful.

“I can play at a high level, an All-American level,” Rice said. “I have all the confidence in the world still.”

Musselman and his staff feel the same way. And all parties involved concur that the makeup of this roster will better maximize Rice’s skills. He’ll be able to play more off the ball, with other options like lightning-quick Colgate transfer Jalen Cox able to handle more of the load as a floor general.

Rice won’t return to full go until after summer practice, but that’s more of a precaution than anything. He could be on the brink of a big season, if all things break right.

I’m less confident in the spring emergence of Cofie, the forward who played his way into an NBA scouting combine invite in May. When he first signed with USC, Musselman told me he thought Cofie was a future first-round pick. But considering the expectations, I thought his first season as a Trojan was mostly underwhelming.

Musselman thought Cofie “didn’t really have a stamp on the roster” last season. But so far this year, “He’s kind of a different guy.”

Cofie has made a point to expand his game to the perimeter. Just 27% of Cofie’s shots last season came from behind the arc, and he made just 31% of them. But any added spacing would be welcomed on a roster with potential to get bogged down inside the arc.

“You’ll see me shoot a lot more threes,” Cofie said last week. We’ll see how that factors into the lineups that USC is able to deploy this fall.

The most intriguing of the Trojans’ trio of returners is Arenas, given the wide range of possible outcomes in front of the guard this season. After arriving last year as one of the most-hyped hoops prospects in school history, he returns with a chance to basically redo his ill-fated freshman year.

The challenge for him as a sophomore is to be a more efficient player, after shooting just 34% from the field and 21% from three-point range. Arenas also uncharacteristically struggled finishing at the rim and with his shot selection, two skills that previously were seen as strengths.

He has all the tools to bounce back. Arenas’ ability to create space and find his own shot, in particular, is special. The question is how those tools best fit USC with so many more options around him.

When he debuted in January last season after missing the start because of knee surgery, Arenas immediately shouldered the load and dominated the ball. It was too much to ask of a freshman in that situation. But that’s no longer necessary with Rice healthy and Cox able to handle the point. Arenas will benefit from being off the ball more often.

Adding three McDonald’s All-Americans should go a long way with this team as well, if only because there will be real talent at the back end of the rotation. And unlike last season, USC should be able to bring its freshmen along at their own pace.

The potential is obvious with Darius and Adonis Ratliff, but both presumably would benefit from that time. Christian Collins, on the other hand, looks primed to make an impact right away, if needed. Watching him knife through the lane on his way to the hoop last week, I found myself wondering if he might be a lottery pick by next spring.

“Christian has been very impressive,” Musselman said. “We knew the intangibles and the length and the reaction to loose balls, but he has scored the ball, you know, [really well] for a freshman at this early stage.”

It’s far too early to draw any conclusions about the upcoming season. But after watching just one practice, it’s not hard to see why Musselman and his staff are feeling especially sunny this summer.

New eligibility rules

Back in October 2024, days after two USC defenders announced they were sitting out the football season to preserve their eligibility, a frustrated Riley offered what he felt was a reasonable solution to a growing problem.

“Guys should have five years to do whatever you want,” Riley said. “I think it should be that plain and simple. Then nobody has to worry about any of this other crap like how many games you’ve played.”

Almost two years later, the NCAA is finally on board with the coach.

The Division 1 Cabinet voted last week to implement major changes to the NCAA’s eligibility rules, giving athletes five years of eligibility to play five seasons. That means no more redshirts, no more medical waivers, no more eligibility questions. All eligibility clocks start the academic year after an athlete’s 19th birthday, and the only exceptions, per the NCAA, are for pregnancy, active-duty military service and religious missions.

Any athlete who wants to state their case for an extra year of eligibility has until the end of next month. But after that, the word “redshirt” officially can be retired from the college football vocabulary.

USC pitching coach Sean Allen talks to Gavin Lauridsen during a Super Regional game last season.

(Kara Durrette / For The Times)

—Musselman has yet to have one of his USC players selected in the NBA draft. But that will change next season. I’d expect, by next spring, we will be talking about as many as three Trojans who could be selected in 2027. Collins and Arenas are five-star talents, and while Collins’ stock is higher at the moment, Arenas easily could return to draft darling status with a strong start to the season. Then there’s Cofie, who balled his way into a draft combine invite this spring, and Rice, whose name will be known in draft circles soon enough.

—Fourteen USC baseball players entered the transfer portal. That group includes two promising young pitchers in Diego Velazquez (who also plays infield) and Gavin Lauridsen. Both were highly touted prospects and looked slated for bigger roles next season. USC also lost its starting catcher to the portal again, with Isaac Cadena committing to Clemson. Losing the young pitchers is a blow, but without the backing to match the name, image and licensing offers of some ACC and SEC teams, this sort of exodus is just inevitable.

What I’m Watching This Week

Tatiana Maslany in “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed.”

(Apple TV)

Apple has been on an absolute heater, and “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” is yet another unique and worthy entrant into its growing library of prestige TV. It stars Tatiana Maslany as Paula, a divorced mom and magazine fact-checker whose only solace is returning to a webcam boy who turns out to be scamming her. Her life is unraveling, but when she takes matters into her own hands, it only descends further into chaos.

“Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” is an absolute thrill ride and one of the more surprising shows I’ve seen this year.

In case you missed it

USC freshman linebacker Talanoa Ili joins lawsuit seeking to upend new NIL system

USC paid Lincoln Riley nearly $12 million in lackluster 2024 season

Until next time …

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Burton, who switched to number eight after Feaunati pulled out of the line-up in Parma, partners the Exeter star in the back row, with Kabeya, who won player of the match in the September’s World Cup final, at open-side flanker.

Liz Crake, who won her most recent cap in 2023 and has returned to working as a dentist alongside her rugby, has been named on the bench after Saracens team-mate Kelsey Clifford suffered a leg injury.

England have won their past 17 meetings with France in all competitions, but were pushed to within a point in a 43-42 victory in last year’s Six Nations finale.

France, who have grown into the tournament as a new-look backline have found their feet, will be roared on by a crowd that is expected to set a new record for a Women’s Six Nations match in France at the 42,000-capacity Stade Atlantique.

England: Kildunne; Breach, Jones (c), Rowland, Moloney-MacDonald; Harrison, L Packer; Carson, Cokayne, Bern, Ives Campion, Burns, Burton, Kabeya, Feaunati

Replacements: Powell, Crake, Muir, Short, M Packer, Robinson, Aitchison, Sing.