Kate Beirness is a TSN broadcaster who hosts CFL on TSN, hosted TSN’s Toronto Raptors coverage through 2025-26 and made her name as a SportsCentre anchor. For hockey fans, Kate Beirness hosted CBC’s daily Olympic Games Hockey show at PyeongChang 2018 and co-hosted CBC’s Olympic hockey coverage at Beijing 2022. She won Best Sports Host at the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards.
| Fast facts: Kate Beirness | |
|---|---|
| Known for | SportsCentre; CFL on TSN; Olympic hockey host for CBC in 2018 and 2022 |
| Current role | Host, CFL on TSN. Hosted Raptors coverage on TSN through 2025-26 |
| Employer | TSN (Bell Media) |
| Hometown | Port Perry, Ontario |
| Education | Ontario Tech University, Bachelor of Commerce, 2009 |
| Previous roles | SportsCentre anchor from 2013; Raptors sideline reporter |
| Hockey connection | Olympic hockey studio host, CBC, 2018 and 2022 |
Is Kate Beirness still with TSN?
Yes. Kate Beirness has been at TSN since 2009, and as of September 2026 she was still part of TSN’s CFL coverage. TSN named her lead host of its CFL panel on 22 July 2021, succeeding Rod Smith, after she had hosted the Thursday-night panel from 2018. She co-hosted TSN’s 2025 Grey Cup coverage with James Duthie.
Kate Beirness has also hosted TSN’s Toronto Raptors broadcasts, confirmed in the network’s schedule announcement for 2025-26. In 2019 she was the sideline reporter on every Raptors game TSN carried, and on 24 March 2021 she hosted the first all-female Raptors broadcast. TSN had not named a Raptors host for 2026-27 when this page was written.
Has Kate Beirness covered hockey?
Yes, at the Olympics, twice. At PyeongChang 2018, Kate Beirness hosted Olympic Games Hockey, CBC’s daily hockey program covering the men’s and women’s tournaments. CBC held the Canadian rights, and Beirness was on its own hockey roster, while TSN and Sportsnet ran separate partner coverage;
At Beijing 2022 she co-hosted CBC’s hockey coverage with James Duthie, with Chris Cuthbert and Bryan Mudryk calling the games and Mike Johnson and Cheryl Pounder as analysts. Kate Beirness was not part of CBC’s hockey coverage at Milano Cortina 2026. The broadcast team the network announced in October 2025 put Andi Petrillo in the women’s hockey host chair, with Kenzie Lalonde and Pounder on play-by-play and Claire Hanna rinkside, while Chris Cuthbert and Mike Johnson called the men’s tournament.
Kate Beirness has one more hockey credit, and it is a comedy. She appeared as herself in three 2019 episodes of the Crave series Letterkenny, including one built around a national senior hockey championship, alongside Olympic champion Tessa Bonhomme.
How did Kate Beirness get started at TSN?
Kate Beirness’s first job in sport was behind the scenes at Sportsnet, booking travel and completing expenses for on-air talent. She left Sportsnet to volunteer at Rogers TV Durham while she finished her degree. She made her TSN debut in 2009. In 2013, after Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole left TSN for the United States, she became a full-time SportsCentre anchor.
In 2014 Beirness and Natasha Staniszewski became TSN’s first all-female SportsCentre anchor team, a pairing City Life profiled in 2016.
| Year | Role | Outlet |
|---|---|---|
| Before 2009 | Travel and expenses for on-air talent | Sportsnet |
| 2009 | TSN debut | TSN |
| 2013 | Full-time SportsCentre anchor | TSN |
| 2014 | First all-female SportsCentre anchor team | TSN |
| 2018 | Host, Olympic Games Hockey; Thursday CFL panel host | CBC; TSN |
| 2019 | Raptors sideline reporter | TSN |
| From 2021 | Lead host, CFL on TSN | TSN |
| 2022 | Olympic hockey co-host, Beijing | CBC |
| 2025-26 | Host, Raptors on TSN | TSN |
What did Kate Beirness win a Canadian Screen Award for?
Kate Beirness won Best Sports Host at the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards for TSN’s coverage of Touchdown Atlantic, the July 2023 CFL game between the Toronto Argonauts and Saskatchewan Roughriders at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. It was one of five awards TSN won that year, TSN reported. She had earlier been nominated in the same category for her FIFA Women’s World Cup coverage.
What is HER MARK?
HER MARK began as a one-day summit Kate Beirness founded to empower the next generation of Canadian female leaders. The first was held at BMO Field in Toronto on 8 July 2017 for 100 Toronto-area female high school students, backed by TSN, MLSE and Under Armour. “As female leaders in this country, I feel it’s our responsibility to be role models and inspire the next generation,” she said when it launched. In January 2019 HER MARK added an eight-episode podcast, co-hosted by Beirness and two-time Olympic champion Cheryl Pounder.
Where is Kate Beirness from?
Kate Beirness was born and raised in Port Perry, Ontario. She was a standout high school basketball player who hoped to play professionally until a serious knee injury in Grade 12 ended those plans, and she went on to earn a Bachelor of Commerce at Ontario Tech University, then the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. The Scugog Sports Hall of Fame, covering her home township, has inducted her as a builder for her broadcasting career. She has also traveled on Canadian Armed Forces tours to Kuwait, France and Ukraine.
How old is Kate Beirness?
She was born on March 8, 1984.
Is Kate Beirness married?
No marriage has ever been reported for Kate Beirness. She was in a long-term relationship with her TSN colleague Darren Dutchyshen, the SportsCentre anchor who died in May 2024, and both the Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun described the relationship in their coverage of his death. Beirness has not discussed her personal life in interviews.
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