Back on the Air in Phoenix

Former KTVK Morning Anchor Tara Hitchcock is making a return of morning TV, but this time it's across the street at KPHO. 

Hitchcock will not be anchoring this time, but instead focusing on entertainment reporting. The segment “Tara’s Reel Travels” will launch Thursday, Oct. 31. Hitchcock has lined up a big gun for the premiere, which will feature Harrison Ford discussing “Ender’s Game.”

“It’s fun celebrity junket interviews, set visits and travel, all wrapped into one thing,” Hitchcock says. “My favorite things are sports, entertainment and travel, and this combines two out of three.”

Future segments will include a visit to the set of the Kate Winslet film “Divergent” and an interview with Matthew McConaughey shot in Toronto.

Hitchcock left “Good Morning Arizona” in 2011 after a 15-year run at KTVK. Three months later, her stepson, Dylan, suffered a brain hemorrhage and went through intensive rehab to relearn to walk. He’s now back at Brophy College Preparatory and “getting even better grades,” she says with a laugh.

“It is a daily reminder that life is too short and you have to do things you love,” she adds.

That’s why she has spent much of the interim working on travel-related projects and doing work for such organizations as Barrow Neurological Center. She maintains an active Twitter account (Twitter.com/TaraTV1) and Web page, Taraontv.com.

“When I left, I got calls to anchor, but I don’t want to sit behind a desk and read anymore, no offense to my friends who do that,” she says. “I’m having a ball doing this with CBS 5. I’m so excited, they’re thrilled, and it’s a perfect fit that lets me do my thing.”

H/T Arizona Republic