Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’s “Face the Nation,” will retire this summer, CBS News reported Wednesday night as the veteran newsman himself announced the move at the Fort Worth, Texas, journalism school named for him.
Mr. Schieffer, 78, has worked for CBS News for 46 years and been its chief Washington correspondent since 1982. 2015 is his 24th year hosting “Face the Nation.”
“It’s been a great adventure,” Mr. Schieffer said at an annual symposium at Texas Christian University’s Schieffer School of Journalism.
“You know, I’m one of the luckiest people in the world because as a little boy, as a young reporter, I always wanted to be a journalist, and I got to do that. And not many people get to do that, and I couldn’t have asked for a better life or something that was more fun and more fulfilling,” said Mr. Schieffer, who graduated from TCU and had his first professional job at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
In a note Wednesday to the network’s staff, CBS News President David Rhodes called Mr. Schieffer “an inspiration and a mentor to so many colleagues — and, frankly, to me.”
His memo said the network would announce plans soon on the future of “Face The Nation” hosting duties and its Washington bureau, but neither he nor the network would talk about specific successors for its Sunday political-talk show.
In the past few years, “Face the Nation” has sometimes led the Sunday shows in the ratings war and CBS indicated it was pleased with its longtime host by expanding it from 30 minutes to an hour in 2012 — the same amount of time already accorded to rival shows on Fox, ABC and NBC.
Mr. Schieffer has won eight Emmys and was named a living legend by the Library of Congress in 2008.
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