Elizabeth Vargas on Returning to the Nightly News Desk After 5 Years: 'Jumped at the Chance' (Exclusive)

Elizabeth Vargas is no stranger to journalism, having collected Peabody and Emmy awards over her more than 30-year career in the industry — though she's taken a break from the daily grind for the past five years.

Vargas, who previously worked as a correspondent on Good Morning America and a co-anchor for ABC World News and 20/20, very publicly departed ABC News in 2018. Since then, she's still been on television, but not in quite the same way, working as a documentary anchor for A&E.

In 2022 she launched the syndicated series iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas. The single mom of two also hosts a podcast, Heart of the Matter, which raises awareness about substance abuse and mental health — subjects close to Vargas, who battled addiction publicly, as detailed in her 2017 memoir, Between Breaths.

And now, she's back to daily news, having signed on to host a nightly program, Elizabeth Vargas Reports, with NewsNation that premieres Monday, April 3.

Speaking to PEOPLE on her first night of rehearsals, Vargas says she "couldn't resist" getting back to the hustle and bustle of breaking news.

"I love the news," Vargas says. "I'm a voracious news consumer myself and we are in the midst of an historic news cycle right now. I jumped at the chance."

Vargas, 60, acknowledges that adding her new role to her other endeavors — including iCrime, her podcast, and her work on the board of The Partnership to End Addiction — will be "a juggling act."

But she's happy to take it all on.

"They are all things I feel passionately about," she says, adding that her interests often intersect.

Elizabeth Vargas Reports plans to cover the fentanyl crisis, she says, something she recently spoke about in her podcast, as well.

As for taking an opportunity at a new network, Vargas says she's excited to be "a part of something that's created, rather than inherited."

"I replaced Peter Jennings at World News Tonight, I replaced Barbara Walters on 20/20," says Vargas, noting that this time, the show is being built from the ground-up.

"I have always sort of romanticized the whole story of CNN and Ted Turner starting the network from nowhere and even Roger Ailes — how he had a vision for Fox News and built that network from nothing," she continues. "Two and three years into their inception, people were still dismissing them ... both networks are now powerhouses."

Vargas adds that NewsNation chairman and CEO Perry Sook helped convince her to take the role, which will see her working with a team of veterans from some of those more established networks, but together, creating something new.

"Perry said, 'Welcome to the last great adventure in television news. We are building something from nothing.'"

All of that building will come on top of Vargas' other demands, like nightly dinners with her sons, which include a strict, no-devices rule, and plenty of open talk about the daily headlines.

"I'm still very much a single working mom," Vargas says, adding that while her sons aren't necessarily impressed with her being on television (she's been in the industry since before they were born), "they do think what I do is really cool."

"My boys have been raised in a home in which we talk about what's happening in the world. We talk about why nobody can stop the drugs at the border, we talk about the cartels," she says.

And with no topic off-limits, Vargas has learned what Americans want to hear — and what they're tired of.

"The key to understanding what's happening in the world is knowing that very little is black and white," Vargas says. "People lose the nuance."

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That's why, she says, her show will offer "a really thoughtful analysis of the biggest stories of the day — so people can make their own opinions."

She continues: "We don't want screaming talking heads shouting at each other. It's not gonna happen on my show. We want smart people to articulate thoughtfully what happened and why it matters. Very little in our entire, complicated world is solved with black-and-white thinking. We intend to look at the shades of grey."

Elizabeth Vargas Reports will air at 6 p.m. EST beginning April 3 on NewsNation.