It appears CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell has signed a new deal that will keep her at the network through the 2024 presidential election. Puck’s Dylan Byers broke the news, and CBS confirmed it over the weekend.
O’Donnell renewing her deal with CBS is significant news, as there has been speculation for months that the veteran CBS Newser and upper management hadn’t been seeing eye-to-eye—and O’Donnell could potentially be on her way out.
The contracts of O’Donnell and CBS Mornings host Gayle King—arguably the faces of the news division—were expiring this year and the network hired CAA talent agent Alison Pepper, formerly a 60 Minutes executive, last fall in preparation of the upcoming contract negotiations. CBS News was successful in re-signing King back in January—despite overtures from CNN—and now the network will be successful in its keeping O’Donnell around for at least a few more years.
O’Donnell joined CBS News from NBC News in July 2011 and was the network’s chief White House correspondent for the next 12 months, covering the administration of then-president Barack Obama. She became a co-anchor on CBS This Morning (now CBS Mornings) in fall of 2012. Then on May 6, 2019, then-CBS News president Susan Zirinsky announced that O’Donnell had been named anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News beginning on July 15, 2019—and would also be the lead anchor of political events for the network and continue as a contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes; titles she holds to this day.