At the same time, Norville still sees those sharks circling when a high-profile female journalist is visibly struggling. In 2012, Ann Curry tearfully exited as Today co-host amid declining ratings and criticism of her chemistry with Matt Lauer. (Curry later revealed that she’d reported Lauer for sexual harassment five months before her departure; Lauer was fired in 2017.)

Ahead of Curry’s last show, Norville penned a Hollywood Reporter column that drew a direct line from 1989 to 2012 and asked one particularly potent question: “Why is the press so quick to blame the chick?”

Part of the answer, or course, lies with which members of the press are doing the reporting. Norville correctly notes that at the time and still today, many of the reporters on the media beat—including the current TVNewser team—are men. And she indicates she felt that particular perspective acutely in the way her story was covered 35 years ago.

“This wasn’t that long after that famous scene in Dynasty when two characters ended up in a catfight and fell into a fountain,” she says. “I think a lot of people who wore the hat that you’re currently wearing wanted to see a real-life reenactment of that moment.”

In fact, as Norville correctly suggests, the prospect of yet another male writer revisiting the story 35 years later risks being more the same. There’s certainly a version of this article that could lean into the catfight coverage and dredge up unflattering gossip.

Instead of perpetuating that cycle, let’s break it by reinforcing that while neither Pauley nor Norville had the succession they wanted in 1989, they’ve both achieved personal and professional success since.

“It’s an interesting bond to have with another person for sure,” Pauley muses. “But a lot of time has passed.”