Q&A: Deborah Norville ends run at ‘Inside Edition’

For a television news industry in a constant state of motion Deborah Norville has been a model of stability She began hosting the syndicated newsmagazine Inside Edition in and has remained there ever since Now that -year run is coming to a close Norville signs off on May She s planning to celebrate with a long vacation through Europe with her husband and try something new when she gets back She will host The Perfect Line a trivia show that begins airing this fall No successor has been named at Inside Edition I m very excited about the tournament show she mentioned It s fun and who doesn t want to give away somebody else s money to people who are happy to take it Three decades ago Norville left CBS News for a genre largely dismissed as tabloid television She s proud of telling stories that add value to the audience s lives A company that makes a device to aid choking casualties says it has traced a thousand uses to people who say they learned about it through an Inside Edition story During COVID the show began broadcasting from her kitchen almost straightaway and never stopped as she built a makeshift studio in her New York-area home We were a familiar presence during a time when everything else was topsy-turvy she commented and I think the bond with our audience was made even stronger then As she prepares to adjust to a life no longer governed by news cycles Norville paused to reflect on her time with The Associated Press Q A ASSOCIATED PRESS You made the decision a while ago to leave Inside Edition Now that it s happening how does it feel NORVILLE It really hit me in the modern day It s the same day my daughter and husband came over to the studio for an in-person interview for a piece they re doing a farewell Deb thing My daughter was on Inside Edition the day she was born Nine hours after I gave birth the crew was in my hospital room taping Inside Edition because they couldn t find anyone else to do the show which was ridiculous To see her this beautiful -year-old grown woman so statuesque and wonderful and lovely and perfect to do an interview about what it s like having her mom work at this place for literally her entire life it was like oh my gosh there s something major about to happen AP When you first joined tabloid shows were considered less respectable than networks How do you think that s changed NORVILLE Remember Tom Shales of the Washington Post Tom Shales certainly put in the paper that I was selling my credibility The old Deborah would have just gone into a fetal position and cried The new me disclosed Oh I don t think so I never knew my credibility had anything to do with the peacock or eyeball on my paycheck because I had worked at NBC and CBS My credibility had to do with the show that I stood in front of the stories that I personally produced and published on and what we put on television every day All I was asking was that people watch AP When you look back on it what is the work you ll remember the the majority NORVILLE Inside Edition has evolved a lot in the years that I ve been here When I got here it was still the hard-core tabloid beach blanket bingo a lot of girls on sandy beaches in tiny bikinis We don t do that anymore It has evolved in such a way that we as a project have become a companion to people not just on television but we re a companion on the internet on social media on YouTube The content that we do is watchable but also very relatable and meaningful AP It s exceptional these days to stay at the same job for a long time Why did that appeal to you NORVILLE I came to Inside Edition because I was expecting my second child I knew it was going to be a boy Norville and her husband Karl Wellner have two boys and a girl I turned down an offer from CBS News to be Eye on America correspondent four days a week and anchor the weekend news one night I would have been teed up for the job that Katie Couric ultimately got But those four nights a week were going to be on the road all over the country and I didn t think I could be the kind of mother I aspired to be and certainly the kind of wife that I wished to be if I was on the road I just didn t know how I could do it AP Any regrets about paths not taken NORVILLE Oh perhaps But here s the antidote to that You take a look at where the road has taken you and you take stock at what you see at that spot in the road where you find yourself The biggest thing is that I look at my family which is the majority pivotal thing to me My husband and I have been married for and a half years I have three amazing children who certainly enjoy being with us who are solid citizens who are kind and giving and industrious and entrepreneurial I didn t mess up my kids Coming to Inside Edition for the right reasons turned out to be the right reason for me