Heather Hiscox will say good morning to loyal CBC News viewers for the last time this fall, as she steps away from the anchor desk after 20 years as host of CBC Morning Live on CBC News Network.
The veteran broadcaster, who announced her retirement on Wednesday morning at CBC’s 2025-26 season preview, says revealing her decision to move on comes with a “torrent of emotion” but also “deep, abiding gratitude” for having a platform to have a conversation with Canadians every morning.
“I’m very proud of what we have created as a morning team. Above all, I’m forever indebted to Canadians, my faithful viewers. Their support has sustained me. Earning and keeping their trust has been my most rewarding achievement,” she said.
Hiscox’s final broadcast will be Nov. 6, exactly 20 years since her first morning broadcast on what was then known as CBC Newsworld.
It will be a live audience event at the CBC Broadcasting Centre in downtown Toronto.
But before that, Canadians will have the chance to connect with Hiscox in person as she takes CBC Morning Live on the road this fall to share their stories from across the country.
After 20 years of waking up with Canadians, from coast to coast to coast, Heather Hiscox will sign off as host of CBC Morning Live later this year. But before she says goodbye, the veteran broadcaster will take her popular morning show on the road to meet people across the country and share their stories.
“What a gift it will be able to say goodbye and thank you in person, in fall,” she said.
CBC executive vice-president Barb Williams says she “can’t think of a better way to honour her legacy” than to have Hiscox “bring CBC’s national lens to local communities.”
Set ‘incredible standard’
Coming out on to the stage at the preview event, Williams shared a hug with Hiscox and praised her as “one of a kind.”
“Heather, we have been so fortunate to have you up early every morning with us, making sure we got our day going. We depend on you,” she said. “You really are here for Canada.”
Hiscox will be missed “immensely,” said Andree Lau, the senior director of digital publishing and streaming at CBC News.
But she said she’s both “happy and sad” about Hiscox’s big news.
“Happy for Heather and her personal decision after so many years of waking up in the wee hours,” Lau said in an email. “And, of course, sad to no longer have her talent and expertise at CBC News.”
“She brings an incredible standard, work ethic and understanding of how the range of news engages with our audience, that lifts all those around her and has made all of us at CBC News better,” Lau said.
The right time to move on
Hiscox says she feels that she’s leaving on top with what she and the CBC Morning Live team have achieved.
“It’s better to leave the party 10 minutes too early, than one minute too late,” she told CBC News, borrowing a quote from her friend and TVO journalist Steve Paikin.
Hiscox says she has been contemplating her 43-year career in media, and what lies ahead for her, for some time.
“I turned 60 in November, and that has a way of sharpening the focus,” she told CBC reporter Makda Ghebreslassie.
“You look to the future and you think: who do you want to spend time with, what do you want to spend time doing, what new and exciting might yet be out there.”
But she says the highlight reel of her career is too long to single out any individual standout moments.
“I’m very proud of the daily victories, the daily small victories because we start dark and early, as we always say, and we create from these building blocks a newscast that is as close to excellent as we can make it every single day,” Hiscox said.
Heather Hiscox, who will be retiring in the fall after decades at CBC News, reflects on her start in local radio, her time at CBC News and what she’s looking forward to as she steps away from daily television.
Hiscox says she “has faith that there will be a new adventure” after she retires, but she doesn’t have a set plan for what comes next.
She is, however, looking forward to more sleep after 20 years of waking up at 2:30 a.m.
Sharing in the stories she tells Canadians
Aside from helping Canadians start their mornings, delivering them live and breaking news for the first four hours of every day from Monday to Friday, Hiscox has brought Canadians stories that touched their hearts and guided them through moments of turmoil.
She shared in the national heartbreak and mourning for the victims of the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash and helped people make sense of tragic events like the Quebec City mosque attack.
She joined in the excitement of the 2024 total solar eclipse, the pomp and ceremony of the royal weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry and the funeral for Queen Elizabeth.
And she has been a fixture in CBC’s Olympic Games coverage, bringing the audience along to a total of 10 Summer and Winter Games — from Turin in 2006 to Paris in 2024 — telling stories that go beyond the podium.
But the Hiscox you see on your screen is what you get off camera, says Lau.
“Compassionate, generous, funny and smart as hell,” she said. “Any time I get the privilege to watch Heather from the control room is a favourite moment for me, because that’s when you get a close-up of a true master at work.”
Received coronation medal last month
Hiscox got her start in broadcasting in 1982, at her hometown radio station in Owen Sound, Ont.
She made the leap to television in 1991, working in southwestern Ontario, Toronto, Halifax and Montreal before becoming a correspondent for CBC’s The National and working in foreign bureaus in Washington, D.C,. and London.
She won the best national news anchor award at the Canadian Screen Awards (CSA) in 2018 and CBC Morning Live claimed the CSA for best morning show in 2023.
Hiscox received the King Charles III Coronation Medal last month for her contributions to Canada, a recognition she said made her “thrilled beyond words to receive.”
www.cbc.ca (Article Sourced Website)
#CBCs #Heather #Hiscox #sign #years #hosting #national #morning #news #CBC #News