Norah O’Donnell Exits Ahead of Hard Pivot for ‘CBS Evening News’

Norah O’Donnell’s exit from “CBS Night Information” Thursday evening wasn’t what viewers might need anticipated. And the successor program that CBS intends to air as a replacement on Monday could have an identical high quality.

O’Donnell bid farewell to viewers of the long-running broadcast after a shock taped cameo from Oprah Winfrey which celebrated the anchor and confirmed many highlights of her tenure. O’Donnell thanked the viewers for welcoming “exhausting information with coronary heart into your houses,” and was noticed being surrounded by colleagues and household because the present’s credit started to roll. Coming Monday: a very overhauled version of this system that’s taking pains to interrupt many visible ties to the times when Walter Cronkite and Dan Slightly informed the nation what was most necessary on the finish of their day.

CBS will launch a brand new “Night Information” that depends on a gaggle of co-anchors, somewhat than a single particular person. One of many targets is to imbue the nationwide program with the look and sensibility of the local-news packages that viewers of CBS stations see throughout the U.S., a nod to the truth that native broadcasts are inclined to nonetheless have traction amongst audiences who’re extra liable to get their headlines and data from streaming and digital sources than prior to now.

Already, the similarities are evident. The graphics used on “CBS Night Information” Thursday night appeared identical to these on show for the 6 p.m. broadcast of the native information from New York’s WCBS that preceded O’Donnell’s final spherical. Throughout O’Donnell’s final broadcast, one section centered on WCBS meteorologist Lonnie Quinn, who’s slated to have a big position within the re-creation of this system.

“CBS Night Information” has been caught in third place behind ABC’s “World Information Tonight” and NBC’s “NBC Nightly Information” for years. O’Donnell didn’t change that, however give her this: The present final week received a mean of 5.037 million viewers — a little bit greater than this system’s norm — amid large modifications within the nation. And she or he’s by no means had her journalism questioned or a narrative that generated criticism of being unfair or inaccurate — regardless of a number of powerful items that investigated sexual assault within the navy. She additionally secured an interview with Pope Francis, not the best “get” within the enterprise.

In her place, CBS will launch an “Night Information” led by John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, with Quinn including climate and Margaret Brennan including to her duties as moderator of “Face The Nation” available to supply perspective on Washington and politics. The brand new format will assist accomplish a purpose touted for months by senior CBS and Paramount International executives: bringing collectively the information groups of CBS Information and the CBS native stations. The maneuver takes place as Paramount is beneath excessive strain to chop thousands and thousands of {dollars} from its working prices. Extra are anticipated to happen as soon as the corporate is acquired by Skydance Media, anticipated, at current, in some unspecified time in the future later this yr. Viewers of the brand new “Night Information” in all probability received’t see Dickerson and DuBois out within the subject all that a lot, an obligation that may more and more be dealt with by a correspondent who covers the realm during which an necessary information story breaks.

Whether or not audiences will flock to it stays anybody’s guess.

The enchantment of the night information on any community comes from a want for a dependable wrap of the day’s most necessary occasions and tales. The exhibits lack the hot-talk alarm of their cable-news counterparts, although in recent times, “Breaking Information” chyrons have crept into the graphics combine with growing frequency. The exhibits present a steady haven for pharmaceutical advertisers, nonetheless one of many greatest supporters of linear TV. To make sure, the evening-news doesn’t lure younger viewers like a “Squid Sport” binge on Netflix would possibly, however they nonetheless corral thousands and thousands of individuals over the course of a single half hour. And possibly there’s a thrill of some kind from seeing a single host juggle politics, tradition, tales from abroad and a little bit bit of popular culture all in lower than thirty minutes.

The danger for CBS subsequent week is that the viewers who tuned in to O’Donnell — and Jeff Glor, Anthony Mason, Scott Pelley, Katie Couric and Bob Schieffer earlier than her — will count on extra of the identical, not one thing totally different.

O’Donnell has extra work to do. She is going to tackle senior correspondent duties that may have her working for large interviews and doing enterprise work that may land throughout CBS Information platforms. At a second when most of the nation’s large TV-news mainstays are beneath growing monetary strain — each CNN and NBC Information unveiled layoffs Thursday — she could have landed the higher job.