Norah O’Donnell’s run as anchor of CBS Evening News is coming to an end.
O’Donnell is set to leave the anchor desk after the 2024 presidential election and will become a special correspondent at the network. In her new role, she will newsmaking interviews and other reports for CBS News programming with appearances on CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes.
“In this new role, Norah will have the time and the support to deliver even more of the exceptional stories she is known,” wrote Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations, in a memo to staff (full note below).
Until her transition to a new post, O’Donnell will continue to handle ongoing coverage of the U.S. presidential election. “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,” O’Donnell said in a statement posted to the CBS News site on Tuesday.
“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,” she added.
O’Donnell replaced Jeff Glor as the face of the network’s flagship news program as anchor and managing editor in July 2019 with a renewal of her deal that was to run through to the 2024 election. She has led CBS News’ flagship broadcast from Washington, D.C.
Previously, O’Donnell was co-host of CBS This Morning since 2012. Before that, she served as CBS News’ chief White House correspondent during the President Barack Obama administration.
O’Donnell’s full statement follows:
Good Afternoon,
For those of you not on our Evening News call, I wanted to share some news that I just shared with our team.
After this year’s election, I’ve decided I will be leaving my role as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News to take on a new position at the network. We just celebrated an amazing five years together. 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! 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. I will continue to contribute to Evening News and all of our news broadcasts, including 60 Minutes.
I don’t need to tell you what a transformative time our business is facing. I see this as an opportunity. I want to thank Wendy McMahon as this new role will also allow me to extend the reach of the work we do to new audiences in new ways. Those interviews and reporting will be shared across the many platforms CBS offers – streaming, digital, primetime, Paramount+, and more. And in fact, we have a big interview coming up that I hope to share more details about very soon.
We have a lot of work to do covering the most important election of our lifetime. My final nights on the Evening News broadcast are still a long way away, and we will have plenty of time to celebrate our accomplishments. As some of you have heard me say before — the quality of your life is built on the quality of your relationships. I am so grateful for OURS.
Our broadcast was nominated for an Emmy this year for “Outstanding Live News Program,” and make no mistake that is because we have the best producers, correspondents, crews, and technical teams. On the Sunday afternoon that President Biden dropped his re-election bid, our CBS News teams ended their weekends early, hustled into work and produced nearly 6 hours straight of live television with new reporting. I am constantly in awe of the professionalism and skill of this team.
Thank you for all that you do for our broadcast and our audience every single day. There’s nothing more important to me than making sure we cover this election with the excellence and humanity that defines our work together. I’m so fortunate to share those values with so many hard-working journalists who believe how important the work of journalism is to a healthy democracy. Onward!
Norah
And McMahon’s full memo is below:
Hi everyone,
Just a few moments ago, Norah O’Donnell shared her decision to step away from the Evening News desk after the election, moving into a new role at CBS – a role that will enable her to, as she notes, do something different, and thankfully for us, do more of the storytelling and big interviews that are a hallmark of CBS News, as well as Norah’s illustrious career.
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. 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.
As Norah noted in her email, this is a transformative time in our industry, where we have the challenge and the opportunity to connect with viewers in entirely new ways, and she is uniquely positioned to do so for CBS. In this new role, Norah will have the time and the support to deliver even more of the exceptional stories she is known for across our shows and streams, across CBS Network and Paramount+. She will have the real estate and flexibility to leverage big bookings on numerous platforms, including primetime specials, 60 Minutes, CBS News Sunday Morning, and more.
But first, there is an election to cover, and Norah will continue to lead our political coverage, including the Democratic National Convention and Election Night. We look forward to Norah’s ongoing coverage of this important political cycle.
I know many of you will have questions about what this means for the CBS Evening News moving forward. Please know we remain committed to its mission, we will share more about our plans soon, and we want to thank all our colleagues who contribute to its coverage every night. As Norah said, her Evening News signoff is not anytime soon, and we look forward to seeing her reporting and interviews now and in the future.
Wendy