Norah O’Donnell is stepping down from the CBS Evening News anchor chair after the election and will take on what she told staffers is “a new position” at CBS News, as senior correspondent. 

O’Donnell started in the anchor and managing editor role in July 2019, moving up from CBS This Morning.  

“I’ll still be anchoring all of our major coverage this year, election night and hopefully a debate!” she said in a memo to staffers. “Beyond that, I’m pleased to share that I have made a long-term commitment to CBS News to continue to do the same storytelling and big interviews that have been our hallmark. I will continue to contribute to Evening News and all of our news broadcasts, including 60 Minutes.”

Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Television Stations and CBS Media Ventures, said in her own note to staffers that the decision is O’Donnell’s. “Just a few moments ago, Norah O’Donnell shared her decision to step away from the Evening News desk after the election, moving into a new role at CBS — a role that will enable her to, as she notes, do something different, and thankfully for us, do more of the storytelling and big interviews that are a hallmark of CBS News, as well as Norah’s illustrious career,” McMahon said. 

McMahon said O’Donnell’s new role will give her “the time and the support to deliver even more of the exceptional stories she is known for across our shows and streams, across CBS Network and Paramount Plus. She will have the real estate and flexibility to leverage big bookings on numerous platforms, including primetime specials, 60 Minutes, CBS News Sunday Morning, and more.

No successor on CBS Evening News has been named. 

O’Donnell succeeded Jeff Glor in the role in 2019. 

“We just celebrated an amazing five years together,” she told staffers. “I love what I do, and I am so fortunate to work with the best journalists and people in the business. Together, our team has won Emmy, Murrow, and DuPont awards. We managed to anchor in-studio through COVID; we took the broadcast on the road from aircraft carriers to the Middle East and around the world. We were privileged to conduct a historic interview with Pope Francis. There’s so much work to be proud of! But 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. It’s time to do something different. This presidential election will be my seventh as a journalist, and for many of us in this business we tend to look at our careers in terms of these milestone events.”

Norah O'Donnell delivered the CBS Evening News from a remote studio, she told her viewers Wednesday (January 12).

That is because she said she had come in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 — she has tested negative. O’Donnell did not say who she had come in contact with, but such contacts are becoming increasingly common given the heightened transmissibility of omicron.

O’Donnell tweeted: “A quick note about tonight's Evening News. Out of an abundance of caution, I will be anchoring tonight's broadcast from a remote studio. I came in contact with someone who has since tested positive for COVID. I've tested negative. See you soon.”

On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said that most people are likely both to be exposed to the omicron variant and contract the virus, though the White House also pointed to a Kaiser Permanente study showing that omicron results in far fewer hospitalizations and deaths.

A number of high-profile journalists have gotten COVID-19, including ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Fox’s Geraldo Rivera and former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. ■

Broadcast and cable primetime newscasts are the most gender-equitable news platforms, while print newspapers and wire services are the least, according to a new analysis by the Women‘s Media Center, that found, overall, a continuing media gender gap.

The center did not look at local broadcast news, only cable and broadcast network primetime newscasts as well as print, wire services and some major internet sites.

The survey found an even 50/50 split of women and men among the anchors and correspondents on the prime time weekday network evening newscasts, but from their the equity meter headed in the wrong direction. Of the online news stories studied, 57% were by men and 43% by women. For wire services, 63% of the bylines were men and 37% women.

Print remained the most male-centric, with 69% of the stories by men and 31% by women. Among the most male top-heavy papers was the Los Angeles Times with 81% men to 19% women.

Among the evening news broadcasts, the survey found that the majority of newscasts anchored by women — CBS‘s Norah O’Donnell, CNN’s Erin Burnett, MSNBC‘s Joy Reid and PBS‘s Judy Woodruff — tended to have more women anchors, hosts, correspondents and reporters. The exception was Fox News Channel‘s The Story with Martha McCallum.

But the newscast with the least percentage of women anchors, hosts, correspondents and reporters was ABC's World News Tonight (anchored by David Muir) with 28%, followed by NBC Nightly News (anchored by Lester Holt) at 34%, then Fox News‘s The Story with Martha McCallum at 39%. The network newscast with the highest percentage of women was The ReidOut on MSNBC (anchored by Joy Reid) at 70%, to 30% men.

But while MSNBC had the most women on the network newscast side, it had the least on its website, with 88% of the stories by men and only 12% by women. CNN was the most balanced with 54% of the stories by women to 46% by men.

Overall the outlets, the most male-dominated category of reporting is on sports, with 87% of the stories on broadcast, cable, print and wires by men and 13% by women. But that gap is much narrower in broadcast and cable, with women reporting 40% of the sports stories and men 60%.

The survey was based on an analysis of 62,002 "pieces of news content" Jan. 1-March 31, 2021, collected from the top 14 newspapers by circulation, seven primetime newscasts on “major broadcast and cable networks” two newswires and seven “major” internet sites. The networks were ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. The internet sites were CNN.com, HuffPost, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, New York Times, The Washington Post and Vox.

CBS Evening News Anchor Norah O'Donnell told a virtual gala audience Wednesday that in an age of the 24-hour news cycle, where people can't even agree on facts, journalists have to focus on being a steady hand. "It is vital that journalists provide information, not affirmation," she said.

O'Donnell provided that advice in her acceptance speech for the Media Institute's Freedom of Speech award, which was given out at the virtual gala Wednesday night (Oct. 20). O'Donnell weighed in from her Evening News set in Washington.

Information is power, she said, something instilled in her by her parents. She said that truth was at the heart of the award she was receiving. The award cited O'Donnell for her "journalistic accomplishments in furtherance of free speech and a free press. It was presented by Gayle King, co-host of CBS Mornings.

Quoting from a predecessor to her Evening News anchor perch, the iconic Walter Cronkite, O'Donnell said: "Journalism is what we need to make democracy work."

It is a motto she lives by and shares with others, but one whose spirit predated Cronkite by a couple of hundred years. She pointed out that the Founding Fathers thought press freedom so important that they made it the very first amendment, "not the 11th."

O'Donnell said they clearly recognized the importance of the role of the press in holding the powerful accountable and that she agreed with one of those "Fathers," Thomas Jefferson. If she had to choose between a government and no free press and a free press and no government, she would choose the latter.

She said the country requires a knowledgable electorate and that it is a journalist's job to get answers for them through tough but fair questions in interviews that are not about the interviewer, but about "the person, the audience and the issue at hand."

Norah O’Donnell, CBS Evening News anchor, will interview President Joe Biden at the White House in the coming days. The interview will be featured across CBS News broadcasts beginning Feb. 5, on CBS Evening News. Parts will also be shown on Face the Nation Feb. 7, and in the 4 p.m. hour that day, which is Super Bowl Sunday. 

It represents President Biden’s first network television interview since taking office last month. 

CBS will air the Super Bowl, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 7. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Kansas City Chiefs. 

James Brown, host of The Super Bowl Today and CBS News’ special correspondent, will report from the big game in Tampa, as will correspondents Mark Strassman and Jamie Yuccas. 

ABC’s World News Tonight has won the 2019-2020 evening news race, the David Muir-anchored newscast averaging 9.39 million total viewers, and 1.88 million in the 25-54 demo, based on Nielsen Media Research. NBC Nightly News, anchored by Lester Holt, averaged 8.27 million total viewers, and drew 1.78 million in the 25-54 demo.

CBS Evening News, anchored by Norah O’Donnell, averaged 5.86 million total viewers and 1.1 million viewers 25-54.

World News Tonight rated a 6.1 in households while NBC Nightly News tallied a 5.3 and CBS Evening News a 3.8. 

ABC News said World News Tonight won every night of the year in total viewers, which it added that no network had done since the start of Nielsen’s electronic database in the 1991-1992 season.

Related: Pandemic Reshapes News Business

World News Tonight went up 9% in total viewers for the season and 9% in viewers 25-54. 

NBC Nightly News gained 4% for 2019-2020 in total viewers, reporting its best season since 2015-2016, according to NBC News, and 1% in viewers 25-54. 

CBS Evening News is up 28,000 total viewers season over season, and gained 5%  since it relocated to Washington, DC, in December 2019. O’Donnell called the DC move “a genius stroke” by CBS News President Susan Zirinsky, giving the newscast a front-row seat for President Trump’s impeachment, his handling of the pandemic, and countless other stories. 

Almin Karamehmedovic is the executive producer of World News Tonight. Jennifer Suozzo exec produces NBC Nightly News and Jay Shaylor exec produces CBS Evening News. 

CBS had to switch to a feed from its 24/7 over-the-top news site, CBSN, when it had technical issues with CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell Tuesday (May 19).

The newscast time slot (6:30-7) began with a series of show promos, then a hard cut to the CBSN feed for the duration of the half hour.

A CBS News source confirmed that there was an issue out of the D.C. control room, where the newscast is produced. The Broadcast Center in New York is closed and there are skeleton crews working out of the D.C. bureau and a backup control room in New York.

"CBS News experienced technical difficulties tonight that prevented the CBS Evening News from airing at 6:30 pm, ET on the CBS Television Network," the network said in a statement. "The issue is being resolved, and the Mountain and West Coast versions of the CBS Evening News will air during the regular time slots at 5:30 PM/6:30 PM, MT/PT. In place of the CBS Evening News on the East Coast, the network aired coverage from CBSN, CBS News’ streaming news service.

"Tonight's broadcast of the CBS Evening News will also air on CBSN and will be available on CBSNews.com."