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Deborah Norville has been honored for her decades of service as a journalist — and she’s remembering where it all began in the late ’70s.
At the 2025 Daytime Emmy Awards on Oct. 17, the Inside Edition alum, 65, was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her record-breaking career as TV’s longest-serving female anchor.
“Thank y’all for standing up, I hope it wasn’t because your rear ends were sore,” she joked with the crowd before kicking off a speech, during which she offered a series of thank yous.
Her biggest acknowledgment was for her family, including her husband of 37 years, Karl Wellner, and three children: Kyle, Niki and Mikaela. “You have been there every step of the way. All four of you have,” Norville said.
Norville then broke into an aside about how her career “very nearly did not happen” and “could’ve all gone really sideways” during her first assignment as a local reporter in 1978. She recalled her cameraman smoking marijuana before a firehouse family picnic, leaving her worried that “daddy will kill me” if she got arrested. That’s, of course, not how things went down.
“Happily, we didn’t get stopped. The fire chief’s old factory senses had been shot years before and the dog was just a dog. I didn’t get arrested and daddy didn’t kill me,” she joked. “But he did see me on TV that night, signing off, ‘Debby Norville TV-5, Eyewitness News.’ I figured the ‘Debby’ I’d have to get rid of if I was gonna have any longevity.”
“I want to thank every news director, executive producer and television executive who took a chance on me,” she added, before listing names of people “who made a bet on me” that “paid off.”
Norville then urged producers and executives to not “be afraid to take a chance” on pursuing interesting “projects and the people who create them.” She concluded: “Different is what grabs people’s attention.”
Before collecting her trophy at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California, the longtime journalist was introduced by both Deidre Hall and a tribute video aired, recognizing her journey from an “eager young reporter” to a “television legend.”
“Deborah Norville is a spark to light our days, illuminate our times and brighten our spirits,” Hall said. “Congratulations my friend, shine on.”
Norville departed Inside Edition in May, 30 years after joining as a host in 1995. She’d announced her upcoming exit the month before, as she called the job “an honor and a privilege” and said, “Upon reflection, I’ve decided that now is the time for me to move on from Inside Edition.”
In a press release, Norville said receiving the Lifetime Achievement Honor at this year’s awards show was an “extraordinary capstone” and expressed her gratitude to “[National Academy of Arts and Sciences], my colleagues, and the viewers who have welcomed me into their homes for so many years.”
“When I first walked into a newsroom as a college student, I couldn’t have imagined a journey that would span more than four decades, take me around the globe, and introduce me to so many remarkable people,” she said.
Adam Sharp, the President and CEO of NATAS, said of the choice to recognize Norville and her “extraordinary career”: “Her legacy extends beyond her historic tenure; she’s brought intelligence, integrity, and compassion to her reporting, shaping how millions of viewers understand the world around them.”
courtesy of Inside Edition
Last month, Norville gave PEOPLE an update on life three months after her exit from Inside Edition, which she called “an amazing chapter of my life.”
“There’s a big part of me that’s like, why didn’t I do this sooner?” she said. “I don’t mean anything negative about that, but just, I’m enjoying my life so much.”
“That level of stress, to not have that is really delicious. And I haven’t looked back.” She’s since taken up a new gig as host of the game show The Perfect Line, but assured fans she has “nothing but gratitude and [I] feel so blessed that I got to do the same show for such a long period of time.”
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The 2025 Daytime Emmys were presented in Los Angeles on Friday, October 17 and streaming live on watch.theemmys.tv and on the Emmys app.
