Norah O'Donnell Leaves CBS Anchor Role: 'It's Been an Honor of a Lifetime'

Published: 1/24/2025, 11:44:20 PM EST

Norah O'Donnell Leaves CBS Anchor Role: 'It's Been an Honor of a Lifetime' — Norah O'Donnell attends the 44th Annual News Emmy Awards at Palladium Times Square in New York on Sept. 27, 2023. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell signed off her nightly newscast for the final time on Thursday.

O'Donnell, 51, anchored her last "CBS Evening News" following nearly 1,300 broadcasts over five and a half years.

"This has been the honor of a lifetime, to anchor this legacy broadcast," she said while thanking viewers Thursday night.

Oprah Winfrey appeared in a pre-recorded segment during O'Donnell's final show to highlight several memorable stories she has covered throughout the years and interviews with high-profile guests such as Pope Francis, former President George W. Bush, and Dolly Parton.

"Not only have you covered history, Norah, you also made it," Winfrey said.

O'Donnell in July 2024 made public that she would be leaving her anchor position following the presidential election. She noted that the change was not related to the merger between CBS News' parent company Paramount Global and Skydance Media. The network announced that O'Donnell would leave her role shortly after news of the merger broke.

“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,” Wendy McMahon, CBS News president and chief executive officer, said in a statement at the time.

The legacy CBS broadcast has been anchored by journalists Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, and Katie Couric.

"The CBS Evening News is, for good reason, the longest-running evening newscast in America, and it has been powered by the finest journalists around the world—the correspondents, producers, and researchers, and crews who work tirelessly to bring you the news every night,” O’Donnell said.

For years, the evening newscast was ranked 3rd in ratings behind ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “Nightly News."

O'Donnell will now move into a new role as senior correspondent for the network and will provide feature reporting and interviews across several broadcasts and platforms.

John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois will co-anchor the “CBS Evening News," the network announced. Dickerson is the former host of “Face the Nation” and “CBS This Morning” and DuBois is a veteran anchor for a CBS affiliate in New York City.

The nightly show, which was broadcast from a studio in Washington to accommodate O'Donnell, is set to move back to New York.

The changes come after the network's parent company, Paramount Global, announced a sweeping restructuring plan, which included major cost cuts and layoffs.