Veteran and current reporter. metropolitan morning Radio host David Common will replace Heather Hiscox as host of CBC tomorrow livethe Crown corporation announced Thursday.
The announcement comes on the same day as Hiscox’s final broadcast as host, the final stop on her Morning Live tour of Canada, and 20 years after she first took on the role.
In an interview shortly before the announcement, Common discussed his plans for the show: addressing both the rapidly diversifying television landscape and the growing sense of apathy and discouragement in the face of the news.
“We are not going to shy away from serious things with journalistic rigor; it is our job. But we also do not want you to feel crushed by it; I do not want that to crush me,” he said. “I want to have some fun, so we’ll have a mix of things – come to the buffet, I say.”
Common, originally from Winnipeg and moving to Toronto at a young age, had plans to become a nurse before meeting Peter Mansbridge by chance as a teenager. He began his career in CBC’s London bureau in 1999, where he established his traveling journalistic streak early on. He would move between Toronto, Fredericton, Winnipeg and Regina before landing in Paris as the corporation’s European correspondent, and then New York City as bureau chief and correspondent.
Reporting in more than 90 countries would follow, and then a series of presenting positions: he was a host for CBC Radio world report In 2013, he held the dual position of Market co-host and news correspondent in 2015 and most recently became the host of metropolitan morning in 2023.
After 20 years of waking up early with Canadians from coast to coast, Hiscox will host its final CBC Morning Live show on November 6. Before turning off his alarm, he spoke to The National’s Ian Hanomansing about his career and why he thinks now is the right time to retire.
echoing Your perspective before accepting that jobCommon said he anticipates the challenges the new role and return to video journalism presents.
“There are a lot of butterflies in something like this. Frankly, that excites me,” he said, while talking about the unique situation facing journalism.
“We are in the midst of a very significant change within CBC and an even more significant change within the media ecosystem,” he said, also speaking of early plans to expand the program’s reach. “We have to reach audiences where they are, and that won’t just be on television.”
Evolution of Morning Live
In an interview, CBC News Network editor-in-chief Mark Ross said that while the dedication to live and breaking news will remain, tomorrow live will evolve. As the show was largely written around Hiscox’s strengths in live storytelling through improvisation, Ross said the next few months of preparation will aim to incorporate Common’s skills in “how to engage an audience in a more intimate way, how to be maybe a little more informal in the way we write the show.”
“We’ll look at those strengths that David brings and create programming around them so that it feels real, personal and authentic,” he said.
As host of CBC News Network’s flagship morning show, Hiscox and her team won numerous awards, including the Canadian Screen Awards for Best National News Anchor in 2018 and Best Morning Show in 2023.
Last year, they were awarded by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) for their breaking news coverage of the earthquake rescue efforts in Turkey. This year, Hiscox received the RTDNA National Lifetime Achievement Award.
Accommodation on the last day of Common metropolitan morning will be on January 16, 2026, before he begins his full-time hosting role on tomorrow live on February 2. Several presenters will fill the tomorrow live role of host until then, while the new host of metropolitan morning is in progress.
