Norville, meanwhile, took over as Today co-anchor in January 1990, and spent the next year covering major news stories and interviewing subjects ranging from Margaret Thatcher to Paula Abdul. But the damage had already been done. Pauley’s successor continued to receive chilly treatment in the press and viewers steadily tuned out of Today in favor of Good Morning America.
In early 1991, Norville went on maternity leave after giving birth to her first child and Katie Couric—then the morning show’s national political correspondent—was picked as substitute co-anchor. Norville never sat on the Today couch again.
Lessons learned
Reflecting on the bungled Today succession 35 years later, Norville says that the only thing she’d do differently is not remain silent—even if it meant being fired.
“At the end of the day, I left NBC anyway,” she says, referring to how the network ultimately pushed aside in favor of Couric. “The net result would have ended up being the same, except I did get a payout. I was able to be whole financially, even though I was kind of a mess psychologically.”
Norville candidly described her post-Today battles with depression in her 1997 book Back on Track, which also revealed how she ultimately pulled her life and career together with a stint at CBS News followed by her nearly 30-year tenure at Inside Edition. “35 years sounds so remote, it almost doesn’t compute,” she says. “It’s literally an entire lifetime.”
Pauley agrees that the media frenzy that once enveloped her life seems like ancient history now. “I look back on it with astonishment,” she says, adding that it also felt like a necessary turning point. “I had really grown up by that point and was ready to proceed to whatever would come next with no guarantees.”
Both journalists say that they’ve occasionally spoken with each other in the ensuing decades and they each were present for Today’s landmark 60th anniversary episode in 2012. They’ve also happily watched as the industry has evolved, with more women stepping into and out of anchoring jobs without generating a ruckus among media watchers.
