Undoubtedly, Norah O’Donnell is currently one of the most trustworthy and acclaimed journalists and broadcasters on American TV. Her precise and research-based approach to news leaves no doubt about her success since starting on NBC in the early 2000s, and continuing to her current senior spot on CBS.
After taking a spot in the iconic “CBS Evening News” in 2019, Norah has sharply and consistently delivered exclusives and interviews with notable people that very few journalists can count on their resume. The show also thoroughly covered the COVID-19 outbreak from the TV news station, always with the ‘hard news with heart’ phrase as its driving force.
Despite her success at the desk of “CBS Evening News”, Norah left the spot in early 2025, much to the chagrin of her loyal audience.
So why did she leave the news show , and what’s next for Norah O’Donnell? What are her plans for the future, and how far has she travelled to become the acclaimed journalist that she is today? Keep witth us to learn all about the situation!
Why Did She Leave “CBS Evening News”?
After five years of hosting the show, Norah said goodbye to “CBS Evening News” on 23 January 2025. The farewell didn’t come as a surprise to most people, as back in July 2024, the journalist had already revealed that she was no longer going to be in charge of delivering the news at the end of the day for their million viewers, planning to be in the show through the US elections. Later in November, her tenure as an anchor was extended for two more months, with her final shift at the news desk being just after Inauguration Day in January.
The reason behind her exit was explained after the first announcement was posted. As a journalist, Norah was proud of the heights the show had reached alongside her team, getting exclusives such as an interview with Joe Biden right after his taking the Presidential office, and a memorable interview with Pope Francis. However, regardless of the many accomplishments, Norah and the network agreed that it was ‘time to do something different’, hence her exit and subsequent move to CBS News as a senior correspondent.
Although it has been noted that “CBS Evening News” is behind other news shows when it comes to viewer numbers, Variety noted that Norah’s exit is part of a series of changes that Paramount has conducted to connect with their audiences in a ‘more sensible’ format, while also dealing with cutting millions in costs.
Who Is Norah O’Donnell?
Norah O’Donnell was born on 23 January 1974, in Washington, D.C. USA. She comes from an immigrant Irish family, a fact that Norah has freely shared throughout her career by telling stories of how her grandparents arrived in America in the early 20th century.
Norah spent part of her childhood in San Antonio, Texas, before her parents moved to Seoul, South Korea, due to her Army officer father being posted there to oversee a Medical Unit. During her time in Korea, Norah attended the Seoul American Elementary School, which was in the community of Yongsan Garrison, where the US military forces were located.
On a visit Norah made to Korea in 2017, she went to Yongsan, and discovered out that the community looked the same even after 30 years. Back then, it was revealed that Yongsan was also the place where Norah started her broadcasting career at 10 years of age, as she was hired by the Korean Educational Development Institute to appear in videotapes teaching basics of the English language to be taught throughout the Korean school system.
After two years in the Asian country, Norah’s family returned to the US. In 1991, Norah matriculated from Douglas MacArthur High School and later enrolled into Georgetown University, gr inaduating with a degree Philosophy in 1995.
Rise To Fame
During her time in college, Norah was an intern for ABC News, and that led her to secure a job at the Roll Call newspaper as a reporter. As Norah confessed to Parade.com, seeing her name in a printed newspaper filled her with a sense of accomplishment early in her career.
In 2000, Norah was hired by Tim Russert at NBC News. She started as a correspondent ,and then became a commentator and contributing anchor on several shows by the network, including covering White House events, on top of being a news anchor at “Weekend Today”. As part of “Dateline NBC”, Norah was won the 2001 Sigma Delta Chi Award for coverage of the 11 September 2001 events. She was named chief Washington correspondent for MSNBC in 2005, and for several more years continued covering historic news for the network, such as the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections.
Some other key moments of Norah’s career at NBC include taking the spot of The St. Patrick’s Day parade’s host. Before leaving the network in 2011, Norah published a book entitled “Baby Love: Healthy, Easy, Delicious Meals for Your Baby and Toddler”, co-written alongside her husband Geoff Tracy. The book was written using their shared knowledge and experience in taking care of their three children, two of whom were born in 2007 as twins, and the youngest daughter who was born in 2008.
Plans For The Future
Norah O’Donnell has been working for CBS since 2011. She first joined as a White House correspondent, and later went on to host “CBS This Morning” alongside Charlie Rose and Gayle King. After seven years on the morning news show, she was named host and editor of “CBS Evening News”, becoming the second female anchor in the iconic show’s history, with Katie Couric as her predecessor.
Following her exit from “CBS Evening News” in early 2025, Norah opened up about the experience in an interview with Elle. In it, she affirmed that reporting on the news was not only a challenge time-wise, given the inherent unexpectedness of the business, but was also psychologically taxing and ‘anxiety-inducing’, as she described it before mentioning that her job actually has led her to therapy.
Regarding the future, not only is Norah not leaving CBS, but she’s also keeping her spot as a host of the “Person to Person” specials and correspondent of the long-standing “60 Minutes” show.
Going back to searching for news is nothing new for Norah, and has been a constant for her even when she was a “CBS Evening News” host. Just as Norah affirmed in her Elle interview, leaving the show was her decision, and this new chapter of her career is ‘just the beginning’, so there’s no doubt we’ll keep watching Norah deliver her ‘hard news with heart’ for a long time to come.
