Curtain coming down after 30 years at 'Inside Edition' for Deborah Norville

NEW YORK (AP) — 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 1995 and has remained there ever since.

Now that 30-year run is coming to a close.

Norville, 66, signs off on May 21. 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 game show,” she said. “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 victims 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 immediately 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 said, “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.

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 today. 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, 27-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 actually 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 said, “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 reported 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 most?

NORVILLE: “Inside Edition” has evolved a lot in the 30 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 program 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 unusual 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 wanted 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, probably. 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 most important thing to me. My husband and I have been married for 37 and a half years. I have three amazing children who actually 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.

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

FILE - Deborah Norville arrives at the CBS, CW and Showtime Press Tour Party in Los Angeles, July 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

FILE - Actor Dustin Hoffman and Allison Atlas talk with Deborah Norville, at right, while taping a spot on the NBC "Today Show" in New York, February 28, 1990. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, File)

FILE - Television journalist Deborah Norville arrives at the Fox Business Network's Launch Party, Oct. 24, 2007, in New York. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File)

FILE - Former NBC "Today" television program hosts Tom Brokaw, left, Jane Pauley, second left, Deborah Norville, center, and Katie Couric, right, with veteran weatherman Willard Scott, gather for a toast in New York's Rockefeller Center, Jan. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - NBC "Today" show anchor Deborah Norville visited with host David Letterman on "Late Night with David Letterman," September 5, 1990, in New York. (AP Photo, File)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Madison Keys planned to walk into the player tunnel at Rod Laver Arena in a quiet moment when nobody was watching, and take a photo of her name listed with the other champions at the Australian Open.

After beating top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in last year's final at Melbourne Park to win her first Grand Slam title, Keys pictured the moment she'd return to the stadium for the first time as defending champion.

“I’ve always kind of remembered walking through that tunnel and seeing all the names,” she said Friday, two days before the first major of the year starts. “It was a little bit of a pinch-me moment where I was like, ‘Wow, I’m going to be up there.’

“I have not seen my name in the tunnel yet. I hope I can go in there when there’s no one else so I can take a picture and send it to my mom."

Before facing the media in Melbourne, she couldn't help but notice other evidence at the venue of her breakthrough triumph.

“There’s a really cool photo of me holding the trophy," Keys said. “Getting to see those, it’s something you dream of in your career.”

The 30-year-old American said it was easy to look back almost 12 months and think everything worked to perfection, but "also you think about, ‘Wow, I almost lost.’

"I was match point down. So many three-set matches. There were some ugly matches. I think it kind of just makes everything a little bit better just because it wasn’t issue-free.”

Keys won a tune-up tournament in Adelaide in 2025 before ending Sabalenka's 20-match winning streak at the Australian Open. At 29, she was the tournament's oldest first-time women's champion. She also set a record as the player with the longest gap between their first two Grand Slam finals — her first was the 2017 U.S. Open.

The Australian Open victory launched her into a Top 5 ranking the following month. After the breakthrough, though, she was ousted in the French Open quarterfinals, the third round at Wimbledon and had a nervy first-round exit at the U.S. Open. At the season-ending WTA Finals, she lost two group-stage matches.

Sabalenka, meanwhile, admitted Friday that the loss here to Keys last year was tough.

“She played incredible and overplayed me. Took me a little time to recover,” she said. “We had matches after that. I worked on my mistake on those matches.

“Going to this AO, I’m not really focusing on that last year result but of course I would like to do just a little bit better than I did last year!”

Sabalenka, who beat Keys in the quarterfinals last week en route to the Brisbane International title, plays her first-round match Sunday night against Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah, a wild-card entry from France.

Keys also lost in the quarterfinals in her title defense in Adelaide earlier this week. But she's taking it in her stride as she prepares for another career first: defending a major title.

“Even though I’ve been on tour for a long time, this is also still my first experience as that,” she said. “I’m really just trying to soak in all of the really cool fun parts."

Seeded ninth and on the other side of the draw from Sabalenka, Keys is scheduled to open against Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine.

“Yes, I’m sure going on court I’m going to be very nervous," she said, "but I don’t think I’ve ever walked on court first round of a Grand Slam and not been nervous.”

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus waves to the crowd after winning the women's final match against Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-4, 6-3, at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)

Madison Keyes of the United States reacts during press conference ahead of the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)