Former “Today” co-anchor Deborah Norville is poised to return to the NBC News fold with a nightly MSNBC show that is expected to debut later this month, sources said.
The cable channel has been in the hunt for a new weeknight show to fill a hole in the network’s weeknight primetime lineup that was left by the cancellation of “Buchanan & Press” in November. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)
MSNBC has since shifted “The Abrams Report” from 9 p.m. to the 6 p.m. slot formerly occupied by “Buchanan & Press,” but that still left the network with a void at 9 p.m., where Norville’s interview-driven program is expected to run.
An MSNBC spokesman declined comment on the Norville situation, and representatives for Norville could not be reached.
Even with her new MSNBC gig, Norville will continue to anchor “Inside Edition.” A spokesman for the syndicated newsmagazine confirmed that Norville is under contract through the end of the 2004-05 TV season.
Norville has been with “Inside Edition” since 1995. She had a rocky tenure in 1990-91 as co-anchor with Bryant Gumbel of NBC’s “Today,” a job she started amid intense media coverage of the purported rivalry between Norville and her “Today” predecessor, Jane Pauley.
Before joining “Inside Edition,” Norville worked for various CBS News programs.