Janet Sawyer

Founding correspondent

It is with a heavy heart that we have to report that our colleague Janet Sawyer passed away Feb. 17, 2021 as a result of COVID-19. After a long career as an Orlando TV news reporter, Janet was the first recruit to join “A World of Difference” as a founding correspondent. She believed in the show and the mission, and worked tirelessly to create perfect segments and brainstorm ways to make the program bigger and better. Beyond that, Janet was a caring and spiritual colleague. The show — and we all — are diminished with the dimming of her light. She made a world of difference.

Janet SawyerJanet Sawyer was senior correspondent for “A World of Difference.”

Sawyer began her broadcast journalism career as a general assignment reporter and solo anchor on mornings and weekends for WCJB-TV20 in Gainesville, Fla. covering stories such as the University of Florida’s animal research program and the Seattle background of Ted Bundy’s execution.

After that, she served as a general assignment reporter, fill-in anchor, and Lake County bureau chief for WFTV-9 in Orlando, Fla. Sawyer delivered nightly reports from the station’s Lake County bureau in Leesburg, Fla. 

For four years, Sawyer worked as a fill-in anchor and health reporter as part of WKMG-6 in Orlando, Fla.’s “The Health Team,” delivering nightly health and medical reports on set and live reports from the field.

Next, she briefly worked for the short-lived America’s Health Network in Orlando, Fla. anchoring live hourly health newscasts.

As anchor, reporter, and debate moderator for “This Week,” a longform news segment on WMFE-TV in Orlando, Fla., she covered local and state issues that directly impacted Central Florida. She also moderated “Ballot 08,” the station’s local election coverage of the Florida 8th Congressional District debate between incumbent Rep. Ric Keller and challenger Alan Grayson.

Sawyer earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in radio/television from the University of Central Florida.