Liz Quirantes walked into CBS12 in West Palm Beach as a weekend reporter in 1991, expecting a short stint before heading back to Miami. Thirty-five years later, the 60-year-old anchor is finally leaving — not for another station, but for her children and the grandchildren she hopes are coming.
Quirantes announced this week that she will retire on May 29, 2026, bringing to a close more than three decades at the South Florida station where she became what the network has described as “one of the defining voices of the station.”
A Family Pulling Her West
Her two adult children now live in Oklahoma, and the possibility of becoming a grandmother made the decision clear.
“What really solidified my decision was when my children started talking about starting their own families. That’s kind of like, OK, they’re not coming back to Florida,” she said. “They’re in Oklahoma, and they’re doing very well, so mom and dad need to go there.”
She and her husband plan to relocate after her final broadcast, leaving the state where she raised her family and built a career spanning hurricanes, elections and the September 11 attacks.
From Weekend Reporter to Local Legend
CBS12 was Quirantes’ second job out of college, following a position at a cable news station in Miami. She never imagined staying.
“I didn’t even sell our home in Miami because we intended to go back to Miami and I would apply to a broadcast station there,” she told CBS12.
But she did stay. Quirantes covered Hurricane Andrew’s aftermath in Homestead in August 1992, just a year into the job — the first of many major storms she would report on throughout her career. She went on to anchor the 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, delivering the news through turbulent decades.
Her work brought two Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards: one for coverage of the 2018 Parkland school shooting, and another for her reporting from the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian’s destruction in 2019.
Departure Amid CBS Upheaval
The announcement, first reported by WPEC on April 27, arrives during a period of major turmoil at CBS News. Since Bari Weiss became editor-in-chief in October 2025, the network has been rocked by sweeping layoffs and restructuring.
The Paramount Global and Skydance Media merger, which closed in August 2025, set off the financial pressures that led to buyouts, departures and high-profile exits. CBS Evening News co-anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson both left in December 2025 amid the changes, with former CBS Mornings host Tony Dokoupil replacing them. CBS Mornings host Gayle King reportedly took a significant pay cut during contract negotiations, according to industry reporting.
Still, Quirantes made clear her departure was not the result of a buyout or forced restructuring — it was her own decision, driven by family.
A Goodbye Decades in the Making
Longtime viewers have flooded social media since the announcement, calling her “a true local legend” and expressing sadness that the broadcasts “won’t be the same without her.”
Quirantes herself acknowledged the difficulty of leaving the community she has served for more than 30 years, saying she wants to be remembered as “a devoted mom, a devoted wife, a good Christian, and an excellent journalist.”
“It’s going to be hard to say goodbye to the viewers, to the staff, and to my life here. I’m going to miss this,” she said.
Her final newscast on May 29 will end a career that spanned the analog-to-digital transformation of local television, the rise and fall of cable news cycles, and the consolidation pressures now reshaping the parent network. After 35 years anchoring four nightly newscasts, the voice South Florida has trusted will be reporting from a quieter beat — one with grandchildren, an Oklahoma sky, and no deadline at 11 p.m.
Who will replace her at the desk remains unclear.
