Norah O’Donnell’s last day behind the anchor desk of “CBS Evening News” will be January 24, CBS News revealed Friday, setting up a timeline for a transition to a new format for a venerable news program that has been part of its schedule, under various names, since 1941.
O’Donnell, who became anchor of “Evening News” in July of 2019, is moving to a new role as a senior correspondent that will have her contribute special reports built around enterprise work or landing interviews with prominent newsmakers. She will continue to contribute to “Evening News,” “60 Minutes” and other CBS News programs. The arrangement is understood to be part of a longer-term commitment that the anchor and CBS News have made to one another.
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O’Donnell’s exit schedule will have her on hand through the inauguration of Donald Trump as the nation’s 47th president in late January.
A new “CBS Evening News,” slated to debut Monday, January 27, from New York, will rely on a broader group of correspondents, rather than a single anchor. The new on-air team will include co-anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, chief weathercaster Lonnie Quinn and Washington-based “Face The Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan. The show will operate under the aegis of Bill Owens, who is also the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” Owens told Variety in August that intends to create a new show that works to break news and offer more depth, rather than trying to run down dozens of items that surfaced earlier in the day in the space of less than half an hour.
O’Donnell’s work at “CBS Evening News” has been recognized by many arbiters of quality journalism. CBS tested having the program based in Washington, D.C. in the midst of Donald Trump’s first presidency. O’Donnell utilized the program to present investigations how the military investigates claims of sexual harassment and abuse ,a subject in which she may have deeper interest, as both her father and sister have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. In 2023, she anchored the program live on two nights from the deck of the U.S.S. Nimitz while it was operating in the South China Sea.
Her work to snare direct interviews with prominent personnel resulted in a sit-down earlier this year with Pope Francis, and in 2019, she was able to press Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashogghi, which intelligence reports have said he orchestrated.
At the same time, the august show, which has ties to Walter Cronkite, has languished in third place behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “NBC Nightly News” for decades which has spurred various executives at CBS to tinker with the program on a regular basis. While ABC News and NBC News have backed years-long evening-news runs by anchors such as Sawyer and David Muir or Brian Williams and Lester Holt, CBS News has continued to move talent in and out of the show. Since Dan Rather’s exit in 2005, CBS has tapped Bob Schieffer, Katie Couric, Harry Smith, Scott Pelley, Anthony Mason and Jeff Glor to handle “Evening News” anchor duties.
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