Deborah Norville leaving ‘Inside Edition’ after 30 years

Deborah Norville, who has hosted the syndicated tabloid news program “Inside Edition” since 1995, has announced she will depart the show after its current season wraps.

“They made me a lovely offer to stay, but there are things I’d like to do and places I want to do them that continuing here doesn’t permit,” Norville, 66, told viewers at the end of the April 2, 2025 show.

During the message, she suggested that this isn’t retirement for her, noting that she has “some exciting things in the works” and promised to reveal them later.

March 6, 2025, marked Norville’s 30th anniversary with the program, which is distributed by CBS Media Ventures. It is typically produced from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.

There was no immediate word on who might replace her.

“Inside Edition,” currently in its 36th season, was first anchored by David Frost, who lasted only three weeks. In its original form, debuting with the program itself in 1988, the show focused on investigative stories and general news. 

Frost was replaced by Bill O’Reilly and the program took on a more tabloid format, which helped improve ratings to the point where it became in line with “Hard Copy” and “A Current Affair” by the end of the 1990s. It was during this time that the leaked tape of O’Reilly’s “we’ll do it live” rant was captured during an attempt to pre-tape material for the show.

O’Reilly remained until 1995, when Norville took over, making her only the third host in the show’s long run.

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“Inside Edition” is typically produced live at 3 p.m. eastern. Depending on what station owns the syndication rights in each market, it is often shown in the late afternoon or evening, with some stations opting to tape the feed. Many stations replay the program during the early morning hours.

Norville has a long career in broadcasting, going back to when she was still in college when she interned at Georgia Public Television and WAGA in Atlanta, Georgia, while attending the University of Georgia. The WAGA gig involved a 60-minute commute from the college campus in Athens, Georgia. 

She was later hired by WAGA after graduation and then jumped to WMAQ in Chicago, Illinois, in 1982. She was then hired by NBC News in New York, becoming anchor of “NBC News at Sunrise.” She eventually moved to “Today,” first as newsreader and then as primary co-anchor in 1990 when Jane Pauley left the desk.

While she helped boost “Sunrise” ratings, Norville did not have the same effect at “Today.” Ratings dipped and, after taking parental leave to give birth to her first child, NBC replaced her with Katie Couric — a decision that was controversial. NBC was later criticized for how it handled the anchor transition. Norville never returned to “Today” and left the network.

She then began hosting a radio show for ABC before joining CBS News in 1992. She spent three years as a correspondent, working for a variety of programs and co-anchoring “America Tonight” before shifting to “Inside Edition.”

From 2003 to 2005, Norville hosted the primetime program “Deborah Norville Tonight” for MSNBC while simultaneously anchoring “Inside Edition.”