Originally produced locally in Perth, the 5pm news production was moved to Sydney as Network Ten claimed the upgrade of the Perth studios was too expensive at the time.
Pearce continued to present Perth's news, from Sydney, with Christina Morrisey and later Celina Edmonds.
After 15 years as the presenter for Ten News Perth, Pearce cited family reasons and resigned from Ten to return full-time to Western Australia.
Pearce was offered the chance to return to Nine and present Nine News Perth with Dixie Marshall.
He replaced Sonia Vinci who was to move to the new local version of A Current Affair but resigned for family reasons.