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The Untold Truth Of Deborah Norville

Deborah Norville's big break came in 1989 when she was brought onto NBC's Today show. Norville's addition to the show was controversial from the get-go, with press reports claiming she was pushing out beloved anchor Jane Pauley; in a 1989 column, Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales wrote that watching Norville sitting on the set with Pauley and co-anchor Bryant Gumbel was like "looking at a broken marriage with the homewrecker right there on the premises."

Norville told the Chicago Tribune that simply wasn't true, that Gumbel and Pauley had been "absolutely supportive" and her refusal to comment on the rumors was at the behest of NBC brass. When Pauley eventually did leave Today later that year, she said, "It has hurt to see two of my friends, Bryant and Deborah, assigned roles in this that they did not play." But the narrative was set: Norville was thought to have engineered Pauley's exit in an All About Eve-style coup, and as The Los Angeles Times put it, "she was taking the fall day after day as ratings dropped."

Just 14 months after Norville joined the show, she was gone. After Norville welcomed her first child in March 1991, Katie Couric was brought in as a temporary replacement until Norville's return, scheduled for April 29, 1991. On April 5, however, The New York Times reported NBC had changed its tune; Norville was not returning, and Couric was now her permanent replacement. 

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Jenniffer Sheldon

Update: 2024-05-16