CBN Founder Pat Robertson, America’s longest-running TV host, is stepping down from his role as daily host of The 700 Club.
He announced on the 60th anniversary of CBN’s first broadcast that he is moving on to new projects. “Today’s show will be my final as host of The 700 Club,” said Robertson. “My replacement will be my very capable son, Gordon, who will take over as full-time host of the program.”
Robertson will turn his efforts to teaching students at Regent University, which he founded in 1977, and will also join in future CBN broadcasts as news warrants.
Starting in October, he will appear on a monthly, interactive episode of The 700 Club, to answer viewer emails. He will also remain available for occasional broadcast appearances as a senior consultant on international affairs.
Robertson looks forward to devoting his energy and experience full-time to helping train and equip members of the 11,000-strong student body of Regent University as they are preparing to become “Christian Leaders to Change the World”.
In hosting the Christian Broadcasting Network’s flagship program for decades, Pat Robertson has shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with millions of viewers. He has worked to bring the hope of Christ to America and the world through inspiring testimonies of the Holy Spirit’s power and firsthand accounts of lives touched by the generosity of CBN partners, through disaster relief efforts and aid for others in need.
Check Out the New 60th-Anniversary Documentary, The CBN Story
“‘Good and faithful’ doesn’t even begin to describe my father’s service to CBN for 60 years. His legacy and the example of his prayer life will continue to lead The 700 Club in the years to come,” said Gordon Robertson, who has served as co-host and executive producer of The 700 Club for two decades. “And the best part is, he is just going across the street to Regent University and will be on The 700 Club regularly in the future.”
Robertson founded CBN in 1960 as the first Christian television network in the United States. The ministry expanded to include the production of The 700 Club in 1966. Over a 60-year history of broadcasting the Gospel, he also earned national and international recognition as a philanthropist, educator, religious leader, businessman, and author.
Since he established CBN News as a segment on The 700 Club, Robertson and the CBN News team have offered viewers insight into world events. Robertson has made news on many occasions by interviewing a broad range of world leaders and cultural influencers on the program, from presidents and prime ministers to top celebrities in the entertainment world.
He obtained exclusive interviews with U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump.
BELOW: Watch Pat Robertson’s 1985 Interview with President Ronald Reagan
He also conducted in-depth interviews with a dozen prime ministers of the State of Israel, including Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Menachem Begin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.
Robertson interviewed many other world leaders including the presidents of South Africa, Zambia, Angola, Zaire, Vietnam, and virtually all of the leaders of Latin America. He even traveled to China and brought to his audience an exclusive interview with Prime Minister Zhu Rongji.
Several other groundbreaking newsmakers he spoke with included Saddam Hussein’s former nuclear scientist Khidir Hamza, who confirmed the dictator did not have the capacity to produce atomic weapons. Robertson took CBN cameras to far corners of the globe too, like Quetta, Pakistan, where he interviewed leaders of the Mujahadin, which later became Al-Qaeda, while reporting on the potential collapse of the Soviet Union after its quagmire in Afghanistan.
And he broke news when he spoke with the daughter of a Soviet spy who exposed her father, John Walker, during a 700 Club interview, as an intelligence official who leaked U.S. secrets to the communist regime from 1967-85.
Beyond the geopolitical realm, Robertson enjoyed interviewing numerous Christian leaders including Corrie Ten Boom, Chuck Colson, Ben Carson, Franklin Graham, Anne Graham Lotz, Tony Evans, Max Lucado, Kirk Cameron, Lee Strobel, and Senate Chaplain Barry Black to name just a few.
BELOW: Watch Pat Robertson’s 1974 Interview with Holocaust Survivor Corrie Ten Boom
He also hosted music stars across the spectrum, including Charlie Daniels, Keith Green, Pat Boone, Gloria Gaynor, CeCe Winans, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Skaggs, Rory Feek, Matthew West, Andrae Crouch, Sandi Patty, For King & Country, and many more.
Highlights from his interviews with entertainment celebrities include Charlton Heston, Sylvester Stallone, Corbin Bernsen, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Shawn Michaels (WWE), Duck Dynasty family (Phil, Kay, Willie, Jep, Missy, Sadie, John Luke, Korie), Kevin & Sam Sorbo, Darryl Strawberry, Nik Wallenda, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, John Tesh, and Gary Sinise.
After 60 years at the helm of countless amazing and historic moments in broadcasting, Robertson’s mission continues in new ways, and so does the global ministry of CBN.
As he wrote near the end of one of the 20 books he authored, Shout It From the Housetops, “CBN has traveled a tremendous journey. The Lord took a small, difficult beginning, placed his special anointing and blessing upon it, and through the vehicle of this ministry has performed miracles of salvation and healing across the globe. Still, we have not yet begun to ‘arrive’. Indeed, the horizons of God’s Kingdom are limitless for CBN and for our world.”
You can find more of Pat Robertson’s biography here.
And to learn about God’s faithfulness throughout CBN’s history, check out this new 60th-anniversary documentary, The CBN Story, available at www.CBNFamily.com The documentary looks at the humble beginnings of CBN, from the early formative years and miraculous growth to today’s global impact of the Christian Broadcasting Network. Narrated by Kevin Sorbo, The CBN Story is told through archival photographs, powerful interviews, and newly discovered footage.
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN