TEMPLE, Texas — Baylee Bates is a weekday anchor for 6 News at 10 and a multi-skilled journalist (MSJ) at KCEN in Temple, TX.
She joined the 6 News team in June 2021 as a MSJ and has quickly worked her way to a position on the anchor desk. Before anchoring the weekday 10 p.m. newscast, Baylee was the weekend anchor.
Before anchoring the 10 o'clock newscast, Baylee is out in the field as a general assignment reporter. Being that she holds many roles at KCEN, Baylee is well rounded when it comes to journalism and loves being where all the action is. She has covered everything from breaking news, politics, features and investigative stories.
During her time with KCEN, Baylee has obtained exclusive video and was the first to report on a Central Texas restaurant employee having an entire cup of soup thrown in her face by a customer. The story went viral and had attention across the world. She’s also been the “first boots on the ground” after natural disasters like tornadoes and wildfires in the area.
Baylee, alongside KCEN's Digital Director Melissa Guz, started the station's first cold case segment, featuring cases that remain unsolved and await justice. Baylee and Melissa work to ensure the victims are not forgotten. Baylee also played a major role in KCEN's first-ever documentary: Waco Fire: Portrait of Courage. The documentary was in honor of the Waco Fire Department celebrating its 150-year history in 2023, and is a 2024 Telly Awards Silver winner.
Prior to joining KCEN, Baylee was a reporter, producer and fill-in evening news anchor for KTEN in Sherman-Denison, Texas. During her time in the Texoma region, she had a one-on-one interview with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, extensively followed the Choctaw Nation and executed an eye-opening story about the controversial prison release after 35 years of a convicted murderer and the subject of the Netflix series "The Innocent Man."
Baylee is a 2019 graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Mass Communication. During her time at the Gaylord College of Journalism, she was an anchor/reporter for the student-run weekday newscast "OU Nightly." Her story "Operation School Bell" won a first place award for Television Feature News from the Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association. She also was a summer intern at WFAA in Dallas, following her junior year in college, and an active member of the Alpha Phi Sorority.
In her spare time, Baylee enjoys shopping, traveling and is a BIG foodie and always looking for restaurant recommendations!
