Well, that was fast.
Just hours after Natalie Morales told NBC News staff that she was leaving the company for “an exciting new opportunity,” DailyMail.com is now reporting that the veteran journalist is heading to CBS to join its daytime panel talk program, The Talk.
Assuming the Daily Mail report is true (CBS is declining comment), Morales will join co-hosts Sheryl Underwood, Amanda Kloots, Jerry O’Connell and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila a few weeks in the middle of the show’s 12th season. Gbaja-Biamila joined the show as a permanent co-host just last month, while O’Connell joined the show as a permanent co-host in July.
The Talk has gone through a number of host changes in recent months after the high-profile exit of Sharon Osbourne this past spring. Osbourne left the show on March 27, weeks after giving an on-air defense of her friend Piers Morgan following controversial remarks he made about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry after their interview with Oprah Winfrey.
As mentioned in the most-recent TVNewser post, Morales joins CBS after spending 22 years at NBC, starting out at WVIT, NBC’s Hartford affiliate, before joining MSNBC in 2002 as a correspondent. She moved to the national network in 2006, joining Today as a national correspondent, and was named co-anchor of Today’s third hour in March 2008. In May 2011, it was announced that Morales would replace Ann Curry as news anchor for Today when Curry succeeded Meredith Vieira as co-host of the flagship morning show in June 2011.
In May 2016, Morales moved to Los Angeles to host Access Hollywood, swapping roles with Billy Bush, and she was also named Today’s West Coast anchor. Morales left Access Hollywood in 2019 and has maintained her role on Today. She was also named Dateline correspondent last October.
Morales will continue to appear on Dateline through the rest of the year (the show’s 30th season). Today show ep Tom Mazzarelli told staff on Friday of Morales’ imminent departure, adding “But it’s not goodbye just yet–as she finishes up her work at Dateline we’ll absolutely make sure to give her a proper on-air farewell in the coming weeks.”