Former KHOU anchor Shern-Min Chow is focusing on new projects after signing off in February.
Shern-Min Chow
After nearly 30 years behind the anchor desk, Shern-Min Chow is still telling stories, just on her own terms now.
Chow signed off in February from KHOU 11, the Houston station she joined in July 1996. Since then, she’s published a novel she’s worked on for years, launched a new media venture and taken on a steady stream of opportunities that kept her schedule packed.
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What’s changed most isn’t the pace. It’s the rest.
“Honestly, the biggest change has been sleep,” Chow told Chron. “I’m not joking—I get about seven, maybe eight hours a night now, and it makes a big difference.”
But slower mornings haven’t translated into slower days. Chow said she quickly filled the space left by daily news with projects she had long put off.
“Every day is really full with the things I wanted to do that I couldn’t when I was working full time,” she said.
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At the center of that shift is If Not You, a book she wrote on nights and weekends during her years in TV and finally brought to publication just weeks ago.
“It’s a project I worked on for years, and finally getting it across the finish line has been incredibly rewarding,” she said.
Shern-Min Chow’s book “If Not You” was released earlier this year.
Shern-Min Chow
The novel is inspired by the life of a woman Chow met, whose story still resonates with her. The woman survived a devastating childhood fire in India and went on to build a career as a cancer researcher at MD Anderson.
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“Her life story still gets me choked up when I tell people about it,” Chow said. “It’s really a tremendously inspiring story.”
The book’s message, she said, centers on resilience and responsibility.
“If Not You is also a challenge when awful things happen,” she said. “If not you, who will speak the truth when you have every reason to be quiet? If not you, then who will stand for those who cannot stand for themselves?”
Shern-Min Chow poses with an attendee while signing copies of “If Not You” at a women’s leadership summit.
Shern-Min Chow
The reporting instincts that defined her TV career carried over into the writing process. Chow built the story through extensive interviews across continents and layered it with research, even having the subject’s family review drafts for accuracy.
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“It involved hours and hours of interviews… and a lot of research into cultural and historical context,” she said.
Alongside the book, Chow is building SMC Media, which she said stands for “Smart Media Content”—not her initials—a venture centered on content creation and partnerships. The work includes influencer-style projects and collaborations, such as a recent deal with Houston First tied to March Madness watch parties downtown.
“I would call that classic content creation with some influencer work,” she said.
Shern-Min Chow moderates a women’s leadership panel on March 28, 2026.
Shern-Min Chow
The venture grew out of ideas Chow had been considering for years, including podcasting, writing and other projects she couldn’t easily pursue while working full time in TV news. When contract renewal talks came up, she said she tried to carve out space for that work but couldn’t make it fit within the station’s structure.
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“We went back and forth…and it just kept coming back like, ‘Nah, we really can’t make that exception,'” she said. “So I said, ‘OK, thanks very much,’ but we parted friends.”
Even so, the transition hasn’t been a clean break. Not long after leaving, Chow got a call from her former station and returned to KHOU 11 for a freelance appearance tied to a development in the decades-old Lovers’ Lane murders case—a story she had covered years earlier.
Shern-Min Chow returned to KHOU shortly after leaving to discuss developments in the decades-old Lovers’ Lane murders case.
Shern-Min Chow
“So, just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in,” Chow recalled her former director joking, referencing The Godfather.
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She’s also been back at the station more recently, appearing this week to talk about her new book.
Shern-Min Chow returned to KHOU this week to talk about her new book, “If Not You.”
Shern-Min Chow
Her day-to-day now looks different from a newsroom shift but carries its own demands. Chow spends much of her time pitching ideas, creating videos and managing her online presence.
She said staying active on social media has taken more time than expected, particularly after receiving an overwhelming number of messages following her departure. At one point, she said, Facebook temporarily locked her account after she replied to too many comments too quickly.
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As her workload grows, she’s started to build a small team, recently bringing on Collum, a high school student interested in journalism, as a part-time assistant to help with events and production.
“It’s been really refreshing to work with someone so energetic and eager with a fantastic attitude,” she said.
The decision to leave KHOU 11 after 30 years had been building quietly in the background. Chow said contract renewal talks forced her to confront it head-on.
“There’s a saying: the best time to do something important was 10 years ago; the second-best time is today,” she said. “I realized if I wanted to try something new, I needed to do it now.”
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Shern-Min Chow spent nearly 30 years at KHOU before signing off earlier this year.
Steve Ueckert/Houston Chronicle
She said she misses the people and daily interaction in the newsroom, along with the built-in opportunity to meet new people and hear their stories. At the same time, she’s embraced the independence that comes with working on her own, including the freedom to make her own decisions.
That flexibility is shaping what comes next. While she hasn’t ruled out a return to TV, Chow said she’s more interested in deeper, long-form storytelling.
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Even outside the anchor desk, she said her focus hasn’t really changed. It still comes back to meeting people and telling their stories.
“I think that’s what I love most, and I hope to have the chance to continue to do,” she said. “It’s not anything more deep or glamorous.”