CBS News is in the midst of a ratings crisis brought on by its new ‘Evening News’ format, former executives and producers have said.
‘It’s a disaster,’ a former CBS News exec told DailyMail.com of the new dual-anchor set-up they framed as ‘going to two anchors.’
Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson have since replaced longtime host Norah O’Donnell, leading to a more magazine-style, less headline-driven format noticeably different from the days of Walter Cronkite.
‘It’s been critically panned, ratings down week by week and from this time last year,’ the source added.
‘[Executive Producer] Bill Owens is also overstretched and feeling the pressure with this lawsuit from Donald Trump,’ the insider said, days after the abrupt exit of CBS News and Stations’ President of Editorial and Newsgathering Adrienne Roark.
The longtime 60 Minutes boss was enlisted to help oversee Evening News last summer. He was brought on by Wendy McMahon, the CEO said to be next on the chopping block amid a parade of exits.
It has also spawned a ratings slump that has raised alarm bells across the industry.
‘I would say it’s a five-alarm fire,’ a veteran television news exec told Status on Friday about ratings seen last week.
‘It’s mind boggling,’ a veteran producer who spent a decade at the network further said of the strategy. ‘They took the “news” out of the “Evening News!” It’s not surprising the audience is leaving in droves.’
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CBS News is in the midst of a ratings crisis brought on by its new ‘Evening News’ format, former executives and producers have said. Pictured, Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson at the helm of a more magazine-style, less headline-driven experiment
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‘It’s a disaster,’ a former CBS News exec told the DailyMail.com of the new dual-anchor set-up they framed as ‘going to two anchors.’ ‘It’s been critically panned, ratings down week by week and from this time last year’. Pictured: CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan
Sure enough, statistics released by Nielsen last week supported the seasoned staffers’ theories – with the exec who spoke to DailyMail.com pointing out how the show’s total viewership is down 14 percent year-over-year.
‘We expected this,’ a person close to leadership, however, argued to Status’s Oliver Darcy Thursday night. ‘We are in this for the long term and are confident in our long game.’
But ratings – and accounts from TV veterans – perhaps indicate a collapse that can be traced to the recent implementation of the new format, which is now structured more similarly to 60 Minutes and even shows like Access Hollywood.
For the week of February 10, Evening News saw a 24 percent drop in the 25-54 demographic when compared to the same period as last year, Nielsen statistics show.
‘That demographic is very important to advertisers,’ the former exec who spoke to the DailyMail.com explained. ‘The experiment is failing.’
The ‘veteran’ television exec who spoke to Status said more of the same, as numbers for CBS’s evening competitors ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News both slightly up.
‘It’s almost impossible to build it once you’ve lost it. So to have a drop off like that suggest that this asset… is circling the drain,’ they said of the viewership.
‘Why did McMahon and Owens decide to try to reinvent the “Evening News” in this challenging moment?’ the industry insider went on to ask. ‘Any excuse you give the audience to change their habit is a massive risk.’
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‘[Executive Producer] Bill Owens is also overstretched and feeling the pressure in the fight with the Trump lawsuit,’ they added, days after the abrupt exit of CBS News and Stations’ President of Editorial and Newsgathering Adrienne Roark
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DuBois and Dickerson are replacing longtime fixture Norah O’Donnell but have failed to move the needle ratings-wise
A ‘veteran’ television exec who spoke to Status – as well as ‘a veteran producer who spent a decade at the network’ – said more of the same, as numbers for CBS’s evening competitors ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News, led by Lester Hold, both up
‘The habits are so fragile in this new media landscape. So if you give them an excuse to stop watching, they will.’
The former CBS exec who spoke to the newsletter echoed that opinion, calling the past several months ‘one of the most consequential periods for news in years.’
‘And [yet] they are often minimizing the biggest story of the day to 20 seconds.’
Evening News staffers had a similar reaction after the iconic show devoted just 22 seconds to Elon Musk and Donald Trump‘s Oval Office appearance last week.
Employees at CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan told Puck how they were left ‘confused’ – and in some cases, ‘upset’ – by the decision, at a time where hard-hitting news was coming out of Washington at a record rate.
All major news stations led with the story and offered extensive coverage – while O’Donnell’s replacements Dickerson and DuBois instead focused on lengthy features about the US education system, the flu and discovery of a rarely seen fish.
The historical importance of the White House appearance made the still-young strategy stand out all the more, spawning an overall sense of confusion.
‘You have to try really hard to ignore huge stories,’ the former CBS producer told Status, after Evenings buried their coverage of the Musk appearance in a roundup of the day’s events seven minutes in.
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‘You have to try really hard to ignore huge stories,’ the former CBS producer told Status, as Evenings continues to offer long-form features instead of headline-driven news
‘You are telling the audience that we are closed for business, go find out what’s happening somewhere else,’ the insider added, after David Muir and Lester Holt each posted posted annual gains in the 25-54 demographic, 6 and 8 percent respectively.
‘Roark, meanwhile, less than seven years after being promoted, is out,’ the source continued.
‘She was essentially Wendy’s right hand, long before Ingrid [Ciprián-Matthews] was pushed out.
The network’s former president – and Roark’s predecessor – Ciprián-Matthews resigned this past August after less than a year.
‘Why did she leave less than seven months after getting the gig?’ the insider familiar with the matter asked. ‘Well, Wendy [McMahon] found out she was searching for a new job.’
‘Neither have the editorial experience of leading a national news organizations,’ they went on to claim, bringing up Roark’s background in local broadcasting.
‘She was not ready for this job, the intensity of the news cycle – especially now, during an election year.’
Sources close to new leadership at Skydance, the media firm set to merge with CBS parent Paramount by September, told Puck Thursday how McMahon will ‘almost certainly’ lose before the deal is said and done.
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CBS News chief executive Wendy McMahon, 50, is set to lose her job as head of its news division as a result, insiders told Puck Thursday
Both women were among those reprimand famed Mornings anchor Tony Dokoupil for a fiery interview with pro-Palestinian writer Ta-Nehsi Coates that aired on the show in October.
The interview sparked some rare commentary from the billionaire daughter of the late Sumner Redstone and Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, who is set to make more than $1 billion if the Skydance merger goes through.
‘I think we made a mistake,’ said Redstone at an event in New York City that was part of Advertising Week at the time. ‘I think we made a bad mistake this week.’
Within weeks, Trump would win the election, after which he filed the suit that named both Paramount and asset CBS as defendants
The filing surrounds a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, and that included an edit Trump claimed was favorable to Harris‘s unsuccessful campaign.
In the excerpt, the candidate was asked a question about the Israeli-Hamas conflict, and gave a lengthy answer – one different than the one that aired on Margaret Brennan’s Face the Nation.
Seemingly looking to avoid any prospective government pushback, the heiress was part of settlement talks started as early as late last month, three people with ‘knowledge of the talks’ told the New York Times.
Meanwhile, Brennan – one of the network’s most recognizable talents – is at the center of a separate controversy, one that erupted after her quizzing of Marco Rubio about JD Vance‘s remarks at the Munich Security Conference.
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Meanwhile, Margaret Brennan – one of the network’s most recognizable talents – is at the center of a separate controversy, one that erupted after her quizzing of Secretary of State Marco Rubio about JD Vance’s remarks at the Munich Security Conference
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Brennan had been quizzing Rubio about JD Vance’s remarks at the Munich Security Conference, after the vice president denounced European censorship practices that have seen some internet users jailed for reposting false information
At the conference, the vice president had denounced European censorship practices that have seen some internet users jailed for online posts said to contain false information.
He proceeded to pan a 60 Minutes segment that aired the Sunday before, where correspondents talked up such efforts – and predawn raids from German police officers.
It further praised cops for ‘introducing a touch of German order to the unruly World Wide Web’ with predawn raids on internet ‘trolls’ – who can be targeted for simply posting insults or doctored quotes online.
Brennan went on to link the free speech claims to the Holocaust, leading Rubio to accuse the anchor of engaging in the spread of misinformation herself.
‘The context of that was changing the tone of it,’ she said of Vance’s speech. ‘And you know that.’
Rubio went on to defend Vance, who later took to X to write about ‘crazy exchange.’
‘Does the media really think the Holocaust was caused by free speech?’ he asked incredulously, saying he would have to ‘disagree’.
‘Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide,’ he argued further, saying the ‘genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that also happened to be genocidal because they hated Jews and they hated minorities.’
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During the speech, Vance panned a 60 Minutes segment that aired the Sunday before, where correspondents talked up European censorship – and predawn raids from German police officers
‘There was no free speech in Nazi Germany, there was none,’ he rightly argued, as Taranto pointed out before drawing lines between the state of the mainstream media and the situation before WWII.
‘There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany, they were [the] sole and only party to govern that country.
‘So that’s not an accurate reflection of history.’
Brennan notably clashed with Vance on the set of 60 Minutes last month, leading her to become a lightning rod of several conservatives.
A controversial 60 Minutes segment surrounding Gaza that aired last month also spawned outrage, after it described Hamas fighters as ‘militants’ and suggested that Israel should seek peace.
Fellow star Gayle King sparked pushback in October as well – around the time of the Tony Dokoupil interview – for remarks aired to the father of an Israeli hostage in a resurfaced interview from CBS Mornings that aired the November before.
‘This seems to be all about politics,’ Gayle said during the sit-down. You know, you have innocent children and Palestinians who are dying, innocent Israeli children who are dying. And no one seems to be able to say “Enough, stop that.”‘
