TV personality was ‘indifferent’ to Queen’s visit

Former host died from COVID-related illness at long-term-care home

BRUCE DEMARA CULTURE REPORTER

Joyce Davidson-Susskind, a longtime broadcaster and television personality who worked with the likes of “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace and married television talkshow host and producer David Susskind, has died in Toronto of COVID-related illness.

Davidson, who was born in Saskatoon, Sask., in 1931, died

Thursday at age 89 at Meighen Manor, where at least 38 residents have died during the outbreak.

She had a decades-long career, including her own daytime talk show, CFTO-TV’s “The Joyce Davidson Show” on during the 1977-78 season.

Davidson began her career as a TV presenter and interviewer from 1956 to 1959 on “Tabloid,” a CBC evening news and entertainment show. She sparked controversy during a 1959 interview with NBC’s “Today” when she professed herself “indifferent” to an upcoming visit to Canada by Queen Elizabeth. A backlash led to her resignation from “Tabloid” within days.

She subsequently moved to the U.S. where she co-hosted “PM East/PM West,” a latenight talk show out of New York City, from 1961 to 1962 with Wallace, who would later go on to become one of original correspondents of the famed newsmagazine show “60 Minutes”; he stayed there for decades and died in 2012.

In 1964, Davidson became a producer of a local New York City talk show called “Hot Line,” where she met Susskind, a celebrated host and producer. They married in 1966, and Davidson had her third daughter, Samantha, before the couple divorced in 1986 and Susskind died the next year. (She had two daughters from a previous marriage in Canada.)

Davidson co-hosted a shortlived U.S. late-night show, “Joyce and Barbara: For Adults Only,” in 1971 with Barbara Howar.

Years later Davidson returned to Canada to host her own show, “The Joyce Davidson Show,” which aired for one season from 1977 to 1978.

She is survived by daughters Shelley Stallworth, Constance Christopher and Samantha Mannion, as well as eight grandchildren and eight greatgrandchildren. Davidson is also survived by brother Brian Brock.