Douglas Edwards' last televised evening newscast aired on April 13, 1962. The following Monday, on April 16, Walter Cronkite officially replaced him as anchor of the telecast. The next year, on September 2, 1963, the program was retitled "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite". It was also rescheduled to broadcast at 6:30 p.m. instead of its normal 7:30 time slot, and its 15-minute format was expanded to 30 minutes, a change that made it the first half-hour weeknight news show on American television. Douglas Edwards' departure from CBS Evening News did not end his work for the network either on television or radio.
He continued to present The World Tonight on CBS Radio, and from April 1962 until 1988, he presented five-minute weekday national television reports. These broadcasts were titled: "The CBS Afternoon News with Douglas Edwards"; "The CBS Mid-Day News with Douglas Edwards", and "The CBS Mid-Morning News with Douglas Edwards". All told, Douglas Edwards broadcast the news daily on CBS television for 40 years.