Norah O’Donnell will step down as anchor of the bottom-ranked “CBS Evening News” after the 2024 presidential election amid expected cost-cutting by parent company Paramount, the network announced Tuesday.
O’Donnell, who took over the post in 2019, has renewed her contract with CBS News for 2022 despite speculation that a successor would be named.
However, as reported exclusively by The Washington Post, her salary is rumored to have been significantly reduced from the $8 million annual salary she was making when she was hired.
During her five years as anchor, the show’s ratings also slumped, dropping by about 25 percent, and the news program fell far behind rivals ABC and NBC.
“She deserves to lose her job,” a CBS source told The Washington Post upon hearing of her departure.
CBS said O’Donnell, 50, will take on the new role of senior correspondent and will focus on larger interviews and reporting for other programs, including “60 Minutes.”
“She was thrown into TV journalism,” the source said.
“It’s like being sent to the special projects graveyard.”
O’Donnell’s departure comes a month after the controversial departure of CBS News president Ingrid Cyprian-Matthews, as CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon pushes forward with cost-cutting and restructuring the network.
Paramount Global is expected to cut $500 million ahead of its merger with Skydance Media.
According to Pac News, which first reported O’Donnell’s departure, CBS News plans to rotate anchors after O’Donnell leaves the post in November.
O’Donnell has had a turbulent life as the latest journalist to join the famed Tiffany Network anchors that includes Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather.
Though she has landed some key interviews over the years, “The Evening News” averaged just 4.4 million viewers in the most recent quarter, with fewer than 600,000 viewers ages 25-54.
“For journalists, CBS is totally irrelevant. No one watches it. It sometimes feels like they’re in the witness protection program,” a network source said.
ABC’s top-rated programs, “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “Nightly News,” have also seen significant declines in viewers in recent years, often by double digits each quarter.
After announcing his departure, O’Donnell thanked his staff.
“Together, our team has won an Emmy, a Murrow Award and a duPont Award. We’ve hosted in-studio during COVID-19, broadcast from an aircraft carrier to the Middle East and around the world. And we had the honor of conducting a historic interview with Pope Francis,” she wrote in the memo.
McMahon praised O’Donnell’s coverage skills.
“Nora’s superpower is her ability to secure unparalleled interviews and stories and then expertly tell them that create news cycles and capture the cultural zeitgeist,” McMahon said.
“Nora’s work here is legendary and she is currently preparing some important interviews that are sure to be equally memorable and significant.”
