But in the ephemeral world of TV news, few would have predicted that Norville was embarking on a four-decade journey to national prominence, surviving an early flameout as NBC \u201cToday\u201d show co-host to become the long-running anchor of the widely syndicated newsmagazine \u201cInside Edition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norville, who stepped down<\/a> after 30 years at \u201cInside Edition\u201d in May, returned to Chicago this week to reflect on her prodigious career and promote her newest and perhaps most surprising gig \u2014 matching mics with the likes of Wink Martindale, Gene Rayburn and Pat Sajak as a TV game show host.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the opportunity to exercise some broadcast muscles that I\u2019ve never flexed before,\u201d Norville said. \u201cBeing a game show host is completely different from anything I\u2019ve done before.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Perfect Line,\u201d a new offering from CBS Media Ventures, debuted in September. It challenges four contestants to put a series of five different things \u2014 from trivia to pop culture \u2014 in the right order to win more than $15,000.<\/p>\n The first season of the show, which airs locally weeknights on WCIU-Ch. 26, was filmed over seven weeks at Trilith Studios near Atlanta, and features the familiar visage of long-tenured news veteran Norville quizzing contestants over such topics as which body-switching movie came out first.<\/p>\n Hint for those playing along at home: \u201cThe Hot Chick\u201d preceded \u201c13 Going on 30.\u201d<\/p>\n It is certainly not the course Norville charted when she set off for New York and a career as a network anchor nearly 40 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s say I stayed on the \u2018Today\u2019 show,\u201d Norville said during a promotional stop Monday at WCIU, the flagship station of Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting. \u201cI probably would have been the first woman to anchor the evening news.\u201d<\/p>\n While now ancient broadcast history, Norville\u2019s short and rocky tenure at the \u201cToday\u201d show was big news at the time, threatening to derail her career in a swirl of negative publicity.<\/p>\n Norville became anchor of the early morning \u201cNBC News at Sunrise\u201d in January 1987, a lead-in for the network\u2019s signature \u201cToday\u201d show and a launching pad for national exposure.<\/p>\n Within a few months, Norville was doing fill-in work at the \u201cToday\u201d show and she was promoted to full-time news anchor in September 1989. In January 1990, Norville ascended to co-host of \u201cToday,\u201d replacing another former Chicago TV anchor, Jane Pauley, in the coveted morning slot.<\/p>\n The move led to rampant speculation in the media that the younger Norville, then 31, had somehow pushed Pauley out, creating viewer backlash that NBC failed to squelch.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll never know what was going on in the background, but all I know is that two women who had such a great working relationship and were so supportive of one another were portrayed in the press as having their hands around each other\u2019s necks,\u201d Norville said. \u201cIt was untrue, it was unfair and it was hurtful to both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Depicted as the \u201cother woman\u201d and unable to shake the negative publicity<\/a>, Norville lasted only one year at the \u201cToday\u201d show amid declining ratings. When Norville took leave to have her first child in February 1991, she never returned<\/a> to the show and was replaced by her fill-in, Katie Couric.<\/p>\n Norville\u2019s meteoric rise and fall on a national television stage was a devastating blow, both personally and professionally. But in its wake, she built a better life and a noteworthy career, raising three kids with her husband of 38 years, and becoming an enduring national news anchor in the process.<\/p>\n \u201cDid my career take a turn? You bet,\u201d Norville said. \u201cDid it hurt? Oh, my God, I was massively depressed \u2014 did-not-get-dressed-for-six-weeks level of depression. And here I am talking about a new national show that I just launched after 30 years of taking another show to No. 1. So guess what? It all worked out. It\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/p>\n Norville\u2019s post-\u201dToday\u201d resume includes eponymous shows on MSNBC and ABC Radio, a stint as a CBS correspondent and anchor, and a remarkable run as host of \u201cInside Edition.\u201d<\/p>\n Launched in 1989 with inaugural host David Frost, \u201cInside Edition\u201d is the nation\u2019s longest-running syndicated newsmagazine program. Norville, who succeeded Bill O\u2019Reilly<\/a> as host in 1995, anchored the show for 30 years before announcing her exit in April. While ratings declined in recent years, the CBS Media Ventures show was still drawing about 3.5 million daily viewers when Norville decided to end her tenure.<\/p>\n Last month, Norville was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 52nd annual Daytime Emmy Awards as the longest-serving female anchor in American TV history.<\/p>\n Not content to rest on her laurels, Norville opted for a radical late-career departure as host of \u201cThe Perfect Line,\u201d which is also produced by CBS Media Ventures.<\/p>\n After seeing the pilot with Norville, Neal Sabin<\/a>, vice chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, was among the first to sign up for the new game show, which airs at 7:30 p.m. weeknights on WCIU, a repository of syndicated talk shows, judge shows, game shows and reruns.<\/p>\n Launched in 1964, Weigel\u2019s portfolio includes national broadcast networks MeTV and H&I, the syndicated radio format<\/a> MeTV FM, original production such as \u201cSvengoolie\u201d<\/a> and 50 local TV stations in 29 markets.<\/p>\n Sabin said Norville\u2019s long run at \u201cInside Edition\u201d gives the new game show a leg up in multiple markets, but her Chicago connection also played into the decision to carry it on The U.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know her from her Chicago heritage here,\u201d\u00a0 Sabin said. \u201cShe\u2019s an excellent choice for doing this. I think she\u2019s one of those people that kind of has universal appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n Early ratings returns have been very promising, with Chicago viewership for \u201cThe Perfect Line\u201d up 12% year-over-year for that time slot in the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic in November, Sabin said.\u00a0 The game show it supplanted, \u201cFlip Side\u201d hosted by Jaleel White, now serves as the lead-in to Norville\u2019s new vehicle.<\/p>\n While \u201cThe Perfect Line\u201d is a long way from anchoring the \u201cNBC Nightly News,\u201d Norville is far from the first to make the transition from newscaster to game show host.<\/p>\n John Charles Daly, an accomplished CBS Radio correspondent credited with breaking the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, went on to greater fame as the 17-year host of the seminal early TV game show, \u201cWhat\u2019s My Line?\u201d<\/p>\n![\"NBC](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ctc-l-Norville-1990-01.jpg\")
NBC “Today” anchor Deborah Norville visits David Letterman on “Late Night with David Letterman” on Sept. 5, 1990, in New York. (AP)<\/p>\n![\"Deborah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ctc-l-norville-2025.jpg\")
Deborah Norville accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 52nd annual Daytime Emmy Awards on Oct. 17, 2025, in Pasadena, California. (Alberto E. Rodriguez\/Getty)<\/p>\n