With a wave of her bandaged left hand, and boosted by well wishes from Dr. Phil, Chris Evert and even a young woman she once babysat, Hannah Storm returned to a most comfortable setting — talking in front of a TV camera.

The ESPN anchor hosted the Rose Parade telecast Tuesday in her first on-air appearance since sustaining first- and second-degree burns to her face, hands, chest and neck in a propane gas grill accident Dec. 11.

"I was just so happy to be there, so grateful," she said. "It took a lot out of me, but it went great."

Storm lost roughly half her hair in the accident outside her home in Connecticut. She wore extensions for the two-hour show on ABC. Storm's eyebrows and eyelashes also were burned off. When a makeup artist brushed on her first eyebrow, "I wanted to kiss her, it looked so good," she said.

She said it was to her benefit that she could ad-lib through the show. She's left-handed, and the burns and an infection make it hard to turn pages on a script.

"I could be myself today, just talking and reacting to what I saw," she said. "It was a very familiar place."

The Associated Press