Maria Shriver Announces Return to TV News

Maria Shriver revealed plans Tuesday to return to network news after a nine-year break. 

Shriver, 57, said she's becoming a special anchor for NBC News to report across multiple properties -- including NBC News, CNBC, MSNBC and NBC Sports -- and focus on "examining the profound impact that women's rising influence and leadership has had on all aspects of American culture and society."

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Shriver -- who left her reporting job at NBC News in 2004 to work as First Lady of California during her ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger's term -- said in a statement that while she's continued working in journalism over the years on various projects, she realized the time was now right to rejoin the network.

"I've come to appreciate even more how television journalism, paired with digital, can engage and elevate humanity in incredible ways -- educating, edifying, impacting people's minds and hearts," she said on her personal blog. "So today I’m going forward. And I feel blessed to be doing so with faith -- faith in television, faith in the news business, and faith in myself."

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NBC News also retains broadcast rights to Shriver's award-winning series of Shriver Reports -- which delve into how American women are playing a central role in key issues facing the country -- with the next special to be released in early 2014.