Jane Pauley will join CBS after 40 years with NBC as a co-host of Emmy-winning "CBS Sunday Morning."
Pauley, best known as the anchor of the "Today" show from 1976 to 1989 and co-host of "Dateline NBC," will be in a sense returning to her roots, as she began her career in TV journalism at a CBS affiliate in Indianapolis.
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
"CBS is the reason I had a 40-year career at NBC," she said at a Wednesday symposium in Fort Worth, Texas,
CBS News reported. "I followed 'MASH,' 'All in the Family,' 'Mary Tyler Moore,' 'Bob Newhart,' 'The Carol Burnett Show.' My Saturday night show, thanks to CBS, was the most-watched newscast in Indiana. So if anybody from out of town was watching television [that weekend], they were watching me."
CBS News' chief Washington correspondent and "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer broke the news at his annual event at the Schieffer School at Texas Christian University.
"My heart is doing strange things — is there a doctor in the house? My pulse is absolutely racing at that news," Pauley told the audience.
Explaining her CBS roots, Pauley said that she hadn't been working long at the Indianapolis affiliate before she got a phone call from NBC.
"So if it weren't for that CBS Saturday night lineup that I followed, I would never have had a career in network television. So I've kind of come back home," she explained.
In December, Pauley reunited with her old show, "Today," as a special guest host alongside Bryant Gumbel. Pauley’s twins, who are 30, were on the show for their birthday Dec. 30, delivering a birthday cake to current host Matt Lauer who shares their special day.
Pauley also released a book aimed at Baby Boomers, "Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life," in January, that asks her peers to look at retirement as a chance at new opportunities.
Upon making the announcement about her new gig, Schieffer told the audience, "Jane is taking her own advice. She's reinventing herself and is coming to work at CBS News ... and we couldn't be happier."
Urgent: Assess Your Heart Attack Risk in Minutes. Click Here.