Deborah Norville

News reporter and anchor Deborah Norville overcame the negative press that swirled around her tenure as host of "The Today Show" (NBC, 1952- ) in the late 1980s to become one of the most popular and prolific news personalities on television with her hosting duties on the long-running "Inside Edition" (syndicated, 1989- ). Born Deborah Ann Norville in Dalton, Georgia on August 8, 1958, she was a beauty pageant winner while attending Dalton High School, and went on to represent her home state in the 1976 America's Junior Miss Pageant. While she did not capture the title, her position allowed her a glimpse of television news operations from a behind-the-scenes perspective, and journalism soon became her career goal. Norville received her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, where she graduated summa cum laude in just three years' time; while attending the university, she interned at Georgia Public Television, which led to a summer internship at WAGA-TV in Atlanta. On her third day at the new job, she was given the opportunity to cover a news story due to a shortage of reporters, and was soon a weekend reporter for the station. Norville moved up to weekend anchor after graduation in 1979, which was followed in 1982 by reporter and later anchor duties for WMAQ, the NBC affiliate station in Chicago. Five years later, Norville became the first solo female anchor of a network newscast when NBC tapped her to oversee "NBC News at Sunrise" (1983-1999). The show's spike in ratings after her arrival led the network to place her as substitute anchor for its venerable "Today Show" in 1987; within two years' time, she had replaced John Palmer as its lead correspondent. When Jane Pauley announced that she was leaving "Today" in 1989, NBC gave her seat to Norville. But Pauley's departure, and Norville's rapid ascent from guest contributor to co-lead anchor drew negative criticism from the press, which accused NBC of elevating her position on the merits of physical appeal and youth; though Norville won an Emmy during her tenure as co-anchor, a precipitous decline in ratings led most viewers and observers to determine that she was the cause of the program's plunge. After the birth of her first child in 1991, Norville declined to return to "Today," and moved briefly into radio as the host of her own nationally syndicated program for ABC TalkRadio Networks. The following year, she returned to television as a correspondent for CBS News. Assignments for "48 Hours" (CBS, 1988- ) earned her a second Emmy in 1994 and the anchor's chair for "The CBS Sunday Evening News." In 1995, Norville replaced Bill O'Reilly as anchor of the syndicated news magazine "Inside Edition," and remained there for the next two decades, save for a brief stint in which she also anchored "Deborah Norville Tonight" (MSNBC, 2003-05). Norville also proved to be a popular contributor to numerous publications, as well as a prolific author. Her first book, Back on Track: How to Straighten Out Your Life When It Throws You a Curve (1997), which drew on the "Today" show scandal, was followed by two children's books and the best-selling Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work For You in 2007. She also drew on her lifetime affection for sewing - which had been her talent during her Junior Miss pageant days - and penned several knitting and crocheting books. She launched her own yarn collection in 2009, and joined the public television series, "Knit and Crochet Now!" as host in 2015.