On Tuesday, July 30, 2024, Norah O’Donnell revealed she will leave her post as anchor of the CBS Evening News after the presidential election. She has held the post for about five years and has remained the top anchor since 2019.
The timing of O’Donnell’s exit is interesting and has gotten tongues wagging. However, she has stated that her retirement is happening now because she believes it is time to do something different.
Why Norah O’Donnell Is Stepping Down As CBS Evening News Anchor
Norah O’Donnell has dedicated many years of her life to being an anchor. But now, at 50, she believes it is time to move on. Before she spent about five years as an anchor at CBS Evening News, she was a host of CBS’ morning news show and White House Correspondent covering President Barack Obama’s administration.
After making such a great name for herself, many might wonder why O’Donnell is leaving now. According to what she told her colleagues in an email, her decision was prompted by a desire for change.
“I have spent 12 years in the anchor chair here at CBS News, tied to a daily broadcast and the rigors of a relentless news cycle,” she wrote. “It’s time to do something different.” She said she will remain with CBS News to contribute interviews and other stories.
However, her role is not fully defined. CBS says the broadcast will continue but has given no indication of who will be replacing her. The CBS Evening News, from which Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather have aired for many years, generally ranks third in network ratings.
It falls behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” with David Muir and the “NBC Nightly News” with Lester Holt. The Nielsen company said that during the week of July 15-21, for instance, ABC averaged 6.8 million viewers, NBC had 5.5 million, and CBS had 4 million.
Before the proliferation of cable news, the three broadcast evening news anchors were generally considered the most powerful journalists in television news and are still influential.
What Inspired Norah O’Donnell To Quit As Anchor?
There are speculations that Norah O’Donnell is stepping back now because of the pending merger of CBS News parent Paramount to Skydance Media. Those speculations are given more credence because CBS News’ president, Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, announced her departure from the network shortly after news of the merger broke.
However, O’Donnell said that a recent interview with Pope Francis, which became her first prime-time special for the network, was what inspired her to think about doing something new. In the future, she’ll focus on interviews for various CBS broadcast and digital properties.
No matter where she goes or what she does, everyone is confident O’Donnell will thrive. Wendy McMahon, CBS News chair, said, “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.”
Norah O’Donnell Salary
O’Donnell took over the anchor seat in 2019. Then, she re-upped her contract with CBS News in 2022, even though there was speculation that she would be replaced. Her salary was reportedly $8 million a year when she was initially hired, but that value has been slashed.
Many think O’Donnell has been a great anchor, but some of her colleagues are not sad to see her go. The show’s ratings have been quite low during her five years in the anchor seat. It has fallen by roughly 25%, leaving the newscast trailing behind rivals at ABC and NBC.
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“She deserves to lose her job,” one CBS insider told The Post after hearing about her exit. O’Donnell, 50, will now serve as senior correspondent. There, she will focus on bigger interviews and reporting for other shows, including “60 Minutes,” according to CBS.
Norah O’Donnell’s Age
The American television journalist was born on January 23, 1974, in Washington DC, which makes her 50 years old as of July 2024.
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