Jeff Glor Will Leave ‘CBS Evening News’ After Friday’s Broadcast
By Brian Steinberg
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Norah O’Donnell won’t take over as anchor of “CBS Evening News” until this summer. But the current anchor of the program isn’t going to stay at the show until that time.
Jeff Glor, who has been the face of “CBS Evening News” since late 2017, has told staff he will step down as anchor of the evening newscast after Friday’s program, according to three people familiar with the matter. Glor is currently in discussions about taking a new role at CBS News, and Susan Zirinsky, the president of the news operations, told Variety earlier this week, that the anchor remains in discussions with CBS News “about a couple of different roles, and I hope he stays.”
Glor is leaving the program as part of a broader overhaul at CBS News that will change not only the evening broadcast, but “CBS This Morning” as well. CBS is betting that a new team of Gayle King, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil can reverse viewership declines at the A.M. program, and that moving O’Donnell to evenings (and her roost to Washington, D.C. from New York) will make the nightly newscast more relevant to a national audience.
Glor has been with CBS News since 2007, and has developed a reputation for reporting and producing what one staffer called “beautiful” pieces about topics ranging from the national debt to an exhibit about Auschwitz concentration camps on display at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. He also snared interviews with President Donald Trump during his time behind the “Evening News” desk.
But staying at “Evening News” in a transitional moment is not a desirable role for any anchor or correspondent. Nor is it a situation most networks tend to indulge.
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment, and the network has not yet indicated who might fill in at “Evening News” until O’Donnell starts her tenure.
“I have family, friends, and, in the future, far more to share with all of you,” he said to viewers at the end of Monday’s “Evening News” broadcast. “It will be great, I promise.”
