For the past 25 years, Dominique Sasche has sent the good people of Houston off to bed well informed.
Her practical and professional advice have recently pushed her channel up above one million subscribers — folks who, like Sasche’s KPRC audience, tune in on the regular to see what she has to share next.
A longtime broadcast journalist, Sasche started her career away from the anchor desk. She got her start reporting traffic for various radio stations. Her window to anchoring opened when she began working for local channel KPRC. She reported traffic there as well, but one week, the network needed a fill-in anchor for the news desk. Sasche stepped in, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sasche now anchors KPRC’s primetime news slots — 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. But there’s also one more place where her many fans (she has more than 57K likes on Facebook and 184.7K on Instagram) can watch her content: on YouTube. She launched her channel in 2014, and immediately shaped it as a place to offer up her fashion and beauty tips. As an anchor, Sasche does her own hair, makeup, and styling five days a week, an undertaking that’s practically its own full-time job. Her videos are meant to make these potentially complicated, time-consuming endeavors as easy as possible for viewers who want to style and go like a pro.
Sasche produces one video per week, and often gives viewers a lot of bang for their watch time, rolling multiple tips into videos that teach viewers how to, for example, turn one pair of jeans into seven looks (below), or videos that give them Sasche’s top skincare tips for a particular season.
Tubefilter: So for those who may not know, you’re a longtime evening news anchor at Houston’s KPRC. Tell us a little about your career! How did you end up in news? What about being a news anchor appeals to you?
DS: I started anchoring in 1994 on our morning show after doing a year of traffic reporting for the station. I was a radio disc jockey before that. KPRC gave me an incredible opportunity as an anchor/reporter in a major market with little to no experience. I had managers who believed in me, and mentors along the way. I worked all day parts Monday through Friday, eventually settling in at the prime 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. time slots. What appeals to me most about my work is providing a service to my community and informing viewers in a place I call home. I’ve lived in Houston since 1974.
Tubefilter: What made you start a YouTube channel?
DS: As a female news anchor, you get questions from viewers about where you get your clothing, what lipstick you’re wearing, who does your hair, etc. I would often get questions about my eye makeup, which is usually a soft smokey eye, my signature. One day, I took my cell phone and recorded a quick video doing an eye makeup tutorial and posted it on my KPRC Facebook page. The amount of comments and follow-up questions I received made me realize that viewers were wanting more of this type of content. Hello YouTube channel!
Tubefilter: What do you think makes your videos stand out despite all the noise on YouTube?
DS: I think there are many channels with helpful and informative content on YouTube. In terms of what brings people to me, maybe it’s a sense of authenticity and a down-home sensibility. When I started, there weren’t too many women in my demographic creating content, and there was apparently a large audience of women in their prime looking for content from a contemporary. I’m also non-sponsored, so when I talk about a product or service, it’s because I really use and buy it.