Julie O'Neill spent nearly three decades as a top anchor for Cincinnati's WCPO news station, but early last year, her career took a gut-wrenching turn.

Despite her longtime coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals, O'Neill was passed over in favor of a younger, male colleague to report on the team's 2022 Super Bowl appearance. Soon after, she said, she began receiving complaints from the station's news director about a decline in her performance. Puzzled, she began recording footage of her segments, hoping to identify and correct any stumbles. The exercise left her only more confused. Her delivery seemed as strong as ever, she told me, and even her coanchor was perplexed by the feedback. Tensions between O'Neill and her bosses continued to escalate, she said, finally reaching a head in September when she was called into a meeting with management. In the meeting, O'Neill was told she would no longer be cohosting the network's morning show and that her station contract would not be renewed after December 31. O'Neill recalled the station's general manager citing her recent on-air mention of a colleague's recovery from COVID-19 — which the colleague had posted openly about on social media — as the "disrespectful" final straw.

"Until all the criticism started, I had had stellar performance reviews and was never, ever accused of being disrespectful or making people uncomfortable," O'Neill said. At the time, she had a sneaking suspicion that her age and gender might have played a role in the abrupt turn of events, but it was an older, male mentor who made her see the connection as crystal clear.

"He said to me, 'When do you turn 55, Julie?'" she said. "And I said, January 9. 'That's interesting,' he said. 'Nine days after your contract was up, you were put out of the 18-to-54 demographic'" — the target age bracket for network-TV ad buys. (WCPO did not comment on Julie's dismissal, but leadership has said, "We do not agree with many statements that have been made. As usual, we don't talk about personnel matters publicly.")