One morning in October, Nikki Reyes found herself deliberating over her breakfast options at a café in Redondela, Spain. Normally, she would have been back in Toronto, monitoring the Maple Leafs or the Raptors or the Blue Jays for one of Canada’s two sports networks, but now she was debating: Toast, or croissant?
Her verdict: Why not both?
“If I was working in television, I’d be like, ‘Double carbs? I don’t know, man,’” she said. “But ‘eff it, we’re not working in TV right now. We’re going to have a double-carb breakfast.’”
As she was eating, Reyes started catching up on the news from back home, and she came across a story in the Toronto Star about Ray Ferraro, the NHL analyst who announced he was leaving TSN after more than a decade. He was keeping his job at ESPN, but he was pulling back elsewhere to spend more time around elements of his life that mattered more; that made him happier.
It resonated with Reyes. Cut loose by Sportsnet six months into the pandemic, she had begun to rebuild her career at TSN, first in radio and then back into television. Like Ferraro, she loved the job — and, as the daughter of Filipino immigrants, she felt a responsibility around representation on the air — but the time away had also amplified a feeling that she was embracing the work at the expense of what actually mattered. her.
Reyes was cresting into her early 40s, logging the late “SportsCentre” shift Friday and Saturday nights, which meant she did not get home until 2:30 am, which meant she never got to sleep until 4 am She was not unhappy, but in June, she still decided to flip a narrative: In an industry where established talent is cut with increasing ease, she instead cut the industry — she left.
“It’s not easy,” said Reyes. “As much as I say I’m happy and I know I made the right decision, there’s always that voice in the back of your head: ‘What the hell did you just do? You worked your whole life for this, and then you get here and you say you’re going to try something different?’”
Reyes was speaking inside a trendy lounge above Massey Hall, in downtown Toronto. Canadian actor Molly Parker was a few feet away in one direction. Olympic sprint champion Donovan Bailey was on the other side, near other luminaries and actors promoting upcoming shows on the CBC.
Reyes is a host of “Canada’s Ultimate Challenge,” which will premiere on Feb. 16, and feature contestants working with notable athletes — including Bailey — to overcome obstacles across the country. Olympic analyst Craig McMorris is co-host, while Olympians Waneek Horn-Miller (water polo), Clara Hughes (cycling, speedskating), Gilmore Junio (speedskating), Jen Kish (rugby sevens) and former NFL tight end Luke Willson appear as the other coaches.
Filming was completed within a five-week window over the summer. Reyes initially hoped she might be able to take on the CBC project while on a short leave from TSN but said she was told it would be too much of a conflict and that she would have to choose.
She ultimately chose to leave TSN.
“People don’t leave the industry, and that’s why it was kind of weird,” said Reyes. “Trying to explain it to my parents. It was like, ‘You’re doing what now? You worked how long to get here, and you’re here, and now you want to go where?’”
Her parents moved to Canada from the Philippines in 1975, and Reyes was raised in the Toronto suburb of Markham. After graduating high school, she moved to the Philippines with the hope of landing work as a sideline reporter in basketball but ended up working as an actor in local telenovelas.
Reyes said she grew up with a fluent understanding of Tagalog, but did not have full command of the language when speaking. As a result, she said she was often cast as the outsider — “I was ‘the b—-,'” she said with a smile — in the story.
“That kind of got old really fast,” she said. “And I was always crying. On these telenovelas, all they do is cry. All the time, crying.”
She focused on sports after moving back to North America, but that focus took her across the continent. She spent time at The Score and at NBA TV Canada, but she also worked in Las Vegas, as a reporter with Top Rank Boxing, and in Boston, as a multi-purpose sports reporter with NESN.
At Sportsnet, she covered the Leafs and the Blue Jays, and she was part of the network’s coverage team for Toronto’s run to the NBA championship in 2019. She was on a three-year contract, and as it came to an end, in September 2020, she was told the pandemic-related financial crunch meant the network could not keep her on the payroll.
Jeff MacDonald, the program director at TSN Radio 1050, in Toronto, hired her within weeks. She was added to the station’s Raptors coverage, and eventually moved back on camera, hosting “SportsCentre” with Sarah Davis, a roommate from their time working together in Boston.
“As much as I love sports, right in this second, I was like, ‘I’m going to take a timeout and focus on this project, then see where I’m at after,'” said Reyes. “We’re on a break with sports. We’re not breaking up, OK? We’re just on a break. I just need to think, that’s all.”
After filming wrapped for the CBC, Reyes embarked on a 260-kilometer hike into Spain from Portugal, as part of a pilgrimage known as The Camino de Santiago. She has said she does not consider herself to be “a super religious person,” but that she “felt the spirit” of the walk soon after taking her first steps.
She chatted with fellow travelers. She listened to Beyoncé. She understood the privilege that left her in a position to leave a full-time job behind, but she also embraced the freedom.
Reyes said she is open to returning to sports. She said she and McMorris were working on ideas to get into coverage plans for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
“Believe me, I have anxiety attacks 10 times a day, and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, what am I going to do? I need money, I need to get my name out there,’” she said. “My mom’s yelling at me, ‘You need to get on Twitter; you need to tweet more; people need to know you’re alive.’”
Reyes is active on social media, but sparingly.
“There’s a lot of pressure to be out there, relevant,” she said. “But I’m really enjoying just doing whatever I want.”
(Photo: Courtesy of the CBC)
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