Methods and apparatus for FEC frame header detection are provided, suitable for use in a DVB-C2 receiver. A first method comprises demodulating with a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) demapper, followed by correlation and symmetry measures for detection of a robust FEC header. A second method comprises demodulating with a 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) demapper, followed by correlation and symmetry measures for detection of a high efficiency FEC leader. Another embodiment comprises using both the first and second methods to find the FEC header because the first symbol of the FEC frame header may be sent either in robust mode or in high efficiency mode. There is also provided a method and apparatus for generating an alternate decision statistic for determining detection of the FEC frame header.