Pat Robertson steps down as ‘700 Club’ host after 60 years

Televangelist Pat Robertson announced Friday that he would be stepping down as host of his Christian Broadcasting Network’s (CBN) flagship show “The 700 Club” after six decades on the program. 

The 91-year-old unveiled the news during the show’s 60th anniversary broadcast, saying that he will still be joining CBN broadcasts for special projects in the future but would be putting his focus on teaching at Regent University, the Virginia Beach private Christian school he founded in 1977. 

“Today’s show will be my final as host of ‘The 700 Club,'” Robertson said Friday, adding that his replacement “will be my very capable son, Gordon, who will take over as full-time host of the program.”

Gordon Robertson, who has already served as co-host and executive producer of “The 700 Club” for two decades, said in a statement Friday, “‘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,” he continued, according to CBN. “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, who mounted an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1988 election, is a former Southern Baptist minister who initially founded CBN in 1960 to promote conservative Christian religious content. 

The longtime television host throughout his career has conducted a series of exclusive interviews with U.S. presidents, including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. 

Robertson has also made headlines over the years for his commentary and predictions on political events, including last October when he said on his show that God had told him then-President Trump would win reelection — and an asteroid would hit Earth five years later. 

The televangelist also predicted that following the 2020 election, there would be widespread civil unrest, at least two attempts on Trump’s life and a war against Israel that will be “put down by God.”

Just two months later, Robertson, who had been considered a Trump ally, acknowledged that President Biden had won the 2020 election, and said that Trump, who at the time was knee deep in his legal challenges to election results, “lives in an alternate reality.” 

Robertson also said that he believed Trump running again in 2024 would “be a mistake,” adding he would, instead, put his money on former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.