Deborah Norville Reflects on Leaving “Inside Edition” 3 Months After Her Exit: 'Why Didn't I Do This Sooner?' (Exclusive)

It's been conscionable complete 3 months since Deborah Norville bid farewell to Inside Edition aft 30 years, and she's sewage nary regrets.

"There's a large portion of maine that's like, why didn't I do this sooner?" Norville, 67, exclusively tells PEOPLE astir her determination to time off nan investigative news show that cemented her arsenic a family sanction complete nan past 3 decades.

"I don't mean thing antagonistic astir that, but just, I'm enjoying my life truthful much," she adds.

The journalist kicked disconnected a caller era arsenic a crippled show big erstwhile The Perfect Line premiered Monday, Sept. 8. The show asks contestants to execute nan elemental task of putting a database of things successful nan correct bid for a chance to triumph up to $15,000.

This alteration of pace, Norville says, has allowed her to slow down and bask life more, including immoderate "extended travel" pinch longtime hubby Karl Wellner. It's thing she calls "a existent treat" for nan mates because it has "never been a anticipation before, successful nan almost 38 years we've been married."

Despite a engaged schedule filming, Norville has gotten to walk clip pinch her family, which includes her and Wellner's 3 kids, Mikaela, Kyle, and Niki, without worrying astir cutting value clip short.

"That level of stress, to not person that is really delicious," she gushes. "And I haven't looked back."

"It was an astonishing section of my life. I person thing but gratitude and consciousness truthful blessed that I sewage to do nan aforesaid show for specified a agelong play of time," she says of Inside Edition. "I miss my colleagues. I matter and we talk a batch to a bunch of nan group that I've worked with. So that portion of my world is still very overmuch pinch me. I haven't fixed up nan relationships."

ABC News alum Eva Pilgrim has since taken complete arsenic anchor of Inside Edition, and Norville says she connected pinch her successor via email to wish her "good luck and each that bully stuff."

"I person not spoken to her, not for immoderate different logic than I've been down present and, literally, we're doing 14-hour days because we're knocking retired sometimes 7 shows a day," she explains.

Norville says 1 of her favourite aspects of The Perfect Line is "interacting pinch nan contestants."

"I person loved conscionable nan 10 minutes we get to walk chit-chatting. We don't person a batch of clip together, but it's really bully to perceive people's stories," she says. "So I'm having a ball."

The Perfect Line is besides a homecoming of sorts for Norville, a Georgia autochthonal who attended nan University of Georgia, arsenic nan show films successful Atlanta. The filming locale has allowed her 3 sisters arsenic good arsenic 8 precocious schoolhouse friends — including 2 women she has known since kindergarten — to sojourn nan set.

Norville notes that friends and family person seen her clasp this caller domiciled arsenic she sets herself isolated from different crippled show hosts by "being nan champion maine I tin be" and not trying to emulate anyone who has travel earlier her.

"It's really nosy to beryllium starting a caller chapter," she says, pointing retired that she believes this is "the only benignant of tv show I person not been hired to do" before.

"So if you had a bingo paper pinch each nan different kinds of TV shows, this was nan 1 abstraction I didn't person a marker on," she adds. "And possibly I've saved nan champion for last."

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The Perfect Line airs successful syndication Monday to Friday, pinch a 2nd tally connected Game Show Network.