🔥📺 No one saw this coming… After spending more than a decade — and in some cases over 40 years — behind the news desk, 14 of television’s most recognizable anchors made the life-changing decision to walk away from the roles that made them household names. From emotional family sacrifices to deeply personal turning points, each departure tells a different story — but the final exit, from a journalist who spent nearly two decades in one of TV’s most prestigious positions, may be the most sh0cking of all. 👀💔👇

Hoda Kotb

In January 2025, Kotb left Today after spending 17 years on the show and 26 years at NBC. In a March 2025 interview with PEOPLE, she reflected on her final day.

“From the minute I walked into 30 Rock that day to the minute I walked out, it’s like this beautiful parade of people were there,” she said. “Maria Shriver came out, Simone Biles came out, Andy Cohen, Kathie Lee Gifford, Jimmy Fallon. And you know what I remember about it all? I remember my heart breaking.”

Kotb announced her exit on Today in September 2024, saying that she knew it was time to leave the show after having an epiphany on her 60th birthday.

“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” she said.

Kotb explained that she wanted to spend more time with her daughters, Haley and Hope, and also start a new chapter in her life. Hope has type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune disease that prevents the pancreas from making its own insulin.

“I really wanted to and needed to be here to watch over her,” Kotb told PEOPLE of Hope in May 2025.

Since her exit, the TV personality has focused on other projects that she’s passionate about, including her wellness brand and a book. In September 2025, she released Jump and Find Joy: Embracing Change in Every Season of Life.

She has also returned to the Today anchor desk on several occasions, specifically amid Savannah Guthrie’s absence in early 2026 following the disappearance of her mother.

Jorge Ramos

After 40 years at Univision, Jorge Ramos decided to step down as co-anchor of Noticiero Univision in 2024. He anchored the program for 38 years.

In a September 2024 press release, the company said that they and Ramos had come to a mutual agreement not to renew his contract.

“This is not a farewell,” Ramos said in the release. “I am deeply grateful for these four decades at Univision and very proud to be part of a team that has established strong leadership over the years.”

His final broadcast with the company was in December 2024.

In June 2025, Ramos returned to journalism, launching an independent daily news program titled Así Veo las Cosas.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be a very privileged journalist,” he said on Instagram, per the Los Angeles Times. “I want to continue using that platform for other voices that need to be heard but aren’t.”

Shepard Smith

Shepard Smith spent 23 years at FOX News. In October 2019, he stepped down as chief news anchor and managing editor of the breaking news unit. At the time, Smith was in the middle of a three-year contract with the company.

He broke his silence on his exit in a January 2021 interview with CNN, in which he also criticized his former colleagues.

“I stuck with it for as long as I could,” he said. “At some point, I realized I’ve reached a point of diminishing returns, and I left.”

Smith said he is still disappointed by what’s reported on FOX.

“I don’t know how some people sleep at night,” he said about the network’s employees. “I know that there are a lot of people who have propagated the lies and who have pushed them forward over and over again who are smart enough and educated enough to know better.”

A representative for Fox News declined to comment when reached by PEOPLE at the time of the interview.

After leaving FOX, Smith went to CNBC, where he hosted his own nightly show The News with Shepard Smith for three seasons. In November 2022, the show was canceled.

Following a break from journalism, Smith briefly returned in 2024 as a contributor on Prime Video’s Election Night Live with Brian Williams.

Chris Matthews

In March 2020, Chris Matthews retired from his role as host of MSNBC’s Hardball following accusations about him making inappropriate comments about women. When he announced his departure on-air, he apologized for his behavior. Matthews was the host of Hardball for 20 years.

“Compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were okay were never okay,” he said during the broadcast. “Not then, and certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”

Matthews has since kept himself busy since his abrupt departure. In 2025, he released a book called Lessons from Bobby: Ten Reasons Robert F. Kennedy Still Matters. He also launched a Substack titled Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Alisyn Camerota

Alisyn Camerota spent 10 years at CNN, hosting CNN Newsroom and CNN Tonight. In December 2024, she announced her exit from the network on Instagram.

“Big News, Everyone! — today is my last day on CNN,” she said.

Camerota’s exit was unexpected. Though she didn’t reveal a reason for leaving the role at the time, her departure came amid many changes at CNN, including lineup shifts and budget cuts.

She later shared in a January 2025 post on Substack that her husband, Tim Lewis, was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer two years earlier, noting that he “passed away a few months ago, leaving my three kids and me devastated and disoriented.”

“As all of that was happening, the world of broadcast news, on network and cable TV, was shifting and constricting,” she continued. “Fewer and fewer viewers were sitting in front of a television to watch the evening news, as more and more people were cord cutting.”

Camerota added, “For the past year, when I went into work to anchor a show, I did so alone in a small studio with robotic camera and no other human in sight, which took a lot of the fun out of it for me.”

Now, Camerota is a special events anchor for Scripps News, as well as the host of her own program, Connected with Alisyn Camerota. She also continues to write on her Substack, where she often opens up about her grief.

Andrea Mitchell

In February 2025, Andrea Mitchell signed off from her daily show, Andrea Mitchell Reports. Though Mitchell’s show has been on the network since 2008, she’s been an anchor at MSNBC for nearly two decades.

In October 2024, she announced she would be stepping down from the program, but would remain at NBC News as chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent.

“After sixteen years of being in the anchor chair every day, I want time to do more of what I love the most: connecting, listening, and reporting in the field, especially as whoever is elected next week is going to undertake the monumental task of handling two foreign wars and the political divisions here at home,” she said before the second inauguration of Donald Trump.

Mitchell has since stepped into her new role at NBC and is covering breaking news, politics and more for the network.

Neil Cavuto

After 28 years at FOX News Channel, Cavuto, a business journalist at the network, decided to leave. He was the anchor of Your World with Neil Cavuto, Cavuto: Coast to Coast and Cavuto Live.

In December 2024, he announced his departure when he signed off from Your World.

“I’m not leaving journalism. I’m just leaving here,” he said during his final taping. “But I’m forever grateful to my bosses here. They’ve been very good to me these many years and offered a very generous opportunity for me to stay years more.”

He added, “I got to do what I love here — report the news, not shout the news, not blast the news.”

According to CNN, Cavuto declined a contract extension that was reportedly offered at lower pay. Throughout his career, he battled many health issues, including COVID and multiple sclerosis.

Chuck Todd

In January 2025, Chuck Todd left his role as a chief political analyst at NBC News. The former host of the long-running series Meet the Press spent nearly 20 years at the company.

“There’s never a perfect time to leave a place that’s been a professional home for so long, but I’m pretty excited about a few new projects that are on the cusp of going from ‘pie in the sky’ to ‘near reality,’ ” he said in a memo to staffers. “So I’m grateful for the chance to get a jump start on my next chapter during this important moment.”

Todd added, “I do plan to continue to share my reporting and unique perspective of covering politics with data and history as important baselines in understanding where we were, where we are and where we’re going.”

He now focuses on hosting his weekly political podcast, The Chuck ToddCast, his sports business podcast, Dynastic, and his weekly interview show on the Noosphere app called Sunday Night with Chuck Todd.

Lynette Romero

In September 2022, Lynette Romero abruptly quit KTLA after more than 20 years at the station. She did not announce her exit. Instead, her co-anchor Sam Rubin broke the news on air, and news station executives faced mounting criticism in the aftermath.

Romero’s colleague Mark Mester called out KTLA in one of the station’s broadcasts about how they handled her departure. He said it was “unfortunate” and “inappropriate.” Days later, he was fired from the station.

Romero didn’t speak about her exit until she started her new job with KTLA’s crosstown rival KNBC-TV. When she made her debut on Today in L.A., she said she left KTLA because of contract negotiations. Romero also said she had “no idea” that a show she taped in mid-September would be her last.

“You know how contract negotiations go — or maybe you don’t — but it’s not fun,” she said, per the L.A. Times. “So then I actually never went back … a little over a month, but it feels like forever. And people … have been saying, ‘When are you coming back? Where have you been? I miss you.’ … I’ve missed you guys too.”

The Emmy-winner is still at KNBC.

“I love my job, my hubby, & my baby girl(btw she’s in college)😉,” she wrote in her Instagram bio. “Everyday I count my blessings.🌻.”

Deborah Norville

In May 2025, Norville said goodbye to Inside Edition after three decades. The longtime host had been working on the show since 1995, which made her the longest-serving female anchor on national TV. However, in an April 2025 broadcast, she announced that it was time for her to “move on” in her career.

In an Instagram post shortly after, Norville elaborated on her decision to leave the show and said it was “motivated by family.” Although Norville said she received a “lovely offer” to stay on the show, she knew that it was time for her to go.

A month later, she spoke to PEOPLE and said her career had to come first “too many times” over the years and she just wanted to make time to focus on family, especially her husband, Karl Wellner.

“What I understand is, it’s right for me to be there for him and to do the things that as a couple we really want to do,” she said.

Norville is now the host of the trivia game show The Perfect Line. According to Deadline, the show is “a new, visual take on trivia,” with a format that covers a wide range of topics, from world events to pop culture moments.

Peter Alexander

In March 2026, Alexander announced he would be leaving NBC after he spent 22 years at the network. The Saturday Today host went on-air and said he was ready to “challenge himself with something new” and spend more time with his family.

“I’ve been away from home more than 80 nights in the last seven months, more than 200 Friday nights away from my family in the last seven years,” he said. “So, in this limited window before my daughters lose interest in hanging out with me — it’s already happened quick — I’m eager to carve out a better balance between my personal and professional lives and to challenge myself with something new.”

Alexander has since moved on to MS NOW, formerly known as MSNBC, where he works as a chief national reporter and anchor.

Jim Acosta

In January 2025, Jim Acosta shocked viewers when he revealed he would not return to the CNN desk after spending 18 years with the network.

“You may have seen some reports about me and the show, and after giving all of this some careful consideration and [after] weighing alternative time slots CNN offered me, I’ve decided to move on,” he said on-air.

Sources told The New York Times that Acosta left the network because he disagreed with CNN’s desire to move his show to a midnight time slot.

After leaving CNN, Acosta went into independent journalism and began hosting The Jim Acosta Show on Substack.

Lester Holt

Lester Holt spent 10 years hosting NBC Nightly News. Then, in February 2025, he announced he was leaving the show that May in a memo that was sent to staff. Holt explained that it was “time” for him to step away from his role, but said he will still continue on at NBC in a full-time capacity come summer.

Holt has since stayed at NBC. He is still an anchor for Dateline, which is an investigative series that he’s been doing since 2011. In a May 2025 interview with Variety, he said he was looking forward to working “some different news muscles.”

“We’re still doing journalism, but these are hour and two-hour shows we’re doing,” Holt said. “Some of the stories you’ll see me doing will be months in the making.”

Anderson Cooper

In February 2026, Cooper announced that he was stepping away from 60 Minutes after he spent nearly two decades on the program as a correspondent. In a statement to PEOPLE, the anchor said the decision ultimately came down to family.

“For nearly twenty years, I’ve been able to balance my jobs at CNN and CBS, but I have little kids now and I want to spend as much time with them as possible, while they still want to spend time with me,” he said.

Though Cooper will no longer be on 60 Minutes, he will stay at CNN. In December 2025, he signed a new contract with the network and will continue anchoring Anderson Cooper 360° and host his podcast,