The CBS Evening News host will depart the network’s nightly news telecast following the presidential election in November. She will then transition to a new role at CBS News, where she will serve as a senior correspondent and continue to contribute to Evening News , 60 Minutes and other CBS News programs.
“We just celebrated an amazing five years together,” O’Donnell wrote in a memo to CBS Evening News staff. “I love what I do, and I am so fortunate to work with the best journalists and people in the business. Together, our team has won Emmy, Murrow and DuPont awards. We managed to anchor in-studio through COVID; we took the broadcast on the road from aircraft carriers to the Middle East, and around the world. We were privileged to conduct a historic interview with Pope Francis. There’s so much work to be proud of! But I have spent 12 years in the anchor chair here at CBS News, connected to a daily broadcast and the rigors of a relentless news cycle. It’s time to do something different. This presidential election will be my seventh as a journalist, and for many of us in this business we tend to look at our careers in terms of these milestone events.
“I’ll still be anchoring all of our major coverage this year, election night and hopefully a debate!” her memo continues. “Beyond that, I’m pleased to share that I have made a long-term commitment to CBS News to continue to do the same storytelling and big interviews that have been our hallmark.”
Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, also weighed in on O’Donnell’s new role. “The fact is… Norah’s superpower is her ability to secure and then masterfully deliver unparalleled interviews and stories that set the news cycle and capture the cultural zeitgeist,” she said in a statement Tuesday. “From her global exclusive with Pope Francis to her interviews with every living president, Norah’s newsmaking interviews always deliver for the audience. How many people can effortlessly shift from field-anchoring on an aircraft carrier in the Red Sea to sitting down with Bono and Dolly Parton? Norah’s work here is legendary, and she has several major interviews in the works that will be equally memorable and momentous.”
O’Donnell was named host and managing editor of CBS Evening News in 2019, following a seven-year stint as co-anchor of CBS This Morning . She also serves as a correspondent on the network’s venerable newsmagazine 60 Minutes , and as a correspondent and occasional fill-in host on Sunday-morning program Face the Nation .
Prior to joining CBS News in 2011, O’Donnell enjoyed a 12-year run at NBC News, where she served as NBC’s Washington Bureau correspondent and MSNBC’s Chief White House correspondent, and contributed to Weekend Today and Dateline NBC .
Additional details on O’Donnell’s CBS Evening News exit and the network’s transition strategy will be announced in the coming days — though Puck reports that CBS is unlikely to replace O’Donnell with another high-profile anchor. Instead, CBS’ Evening News telecast will likely rely on a rotating panel of anchors.
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