{"id":474944,"date":"2026-10-23T23:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T23:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/474944\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T23:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T23:38:09","slug":"dalaun-dillard-says-fox-26-houston-didnt-renew-his-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/474944\/","title":{"rendered":"DaLaun Dillard says FOX 26 Houston didn’t renew his contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

During his final newscast Friday, Dillard revealed<\/a> that FOX 26<\/a> chose not to renew his contract, ending his nearly three-year run at the Houston station.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They are well within their right to do so,” Dillard said, adding that he respected the decision.<\/p>\n

Chron has reached out to FOX 26<\/a> for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dillard, who announced his departure on Monday, thanked his colleagues and viewers during the emotional farewell. He said he hoped he had served the community with excellence and professionalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also shared a heartfelt message with his co-anchor, Melissa Wilson<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Melissa, I love you so, so much,” Dillard said. “Thank you for having my back on air and behind the scenes in rooms I was not in as well.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dillard recalled feeling nervous about stepping into\u00a0Gri\u00f1an’s role but ultimately decided to bring his own personality to the newscast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I knew I couldn’t be him, so I chose to just be me,” he told viewers. “Thank you for loving me, all of me, accepting me.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Viewers expressed disappointment and frustration in the comments of a social media post Dillard shared of his farewell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You know you are the reason we watch FOX 26 Houston<\/a> in the morning?” one viewer wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I still can’t believe they didn’t fight to keep you,” another commented, suggesting rival KPRC 2<\/a> hire him. “I’d switch to watching them in the mornings in a heartbeat.”<\/p>\n

Before arriving in Houston, Dillard worked as an evening anchor and reporter at WEWS in Cleveland, where he won two Emmy Awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Dillard has not announced his next destination, he assured viewers they haven’t seen the last of him on television.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As for what’s next, I’m going to bed,” he joked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I will be on TV again,” he added, promising to share details about his next move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During his final newscast Friday, Dillard revealed that FOX 26 chose not to renew his contract, ending his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[140459,1836,1704,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-474944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-chronmedia","tag-chronnews","tag-chronstaff","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}