Those of you who visit my posts regularly know we have the CBS Evening News on every evening, usually while getting dinner ready. So I feel, as opposed to a lot of online folks, that we have years' worth of real-life, every-night experience to draw from when I hit network news media in my writings on the subject.
The amiable and relatively unbiased Jeff Glor had been the evening broadcast's anchor from 2017 to 2019, and did what we thought was a fine job, until his even-handed (by network standards) style ran afoul of Norah O'Donnell's immense ego and career ambitions. Glor was booted to a Saturday slot after reading about his demotion in the NY Post, and the insufferably smug and partisan O'Donnell slid into the catbird's seat.
...Glor was dethroned from “CBS Evening News” amid a fierce internal campaign waged by O’Donnell, as The Post previously reported.
O’Donnell, who co-hosted the network’s morning show with Gayle King, convinced then-CBS News president Susan Zirinsky to give her Glor’s job and move the ratings-challenged broadcast from New York to Washington, DC, sources said.
The decision proved to be a costly one for CBS.
The network not only spent tons of money moving the show, but the move did not budge the ratings of the third-place program.
During O’Donnell’s five years at the helm, the ratings have plunged roughly 25%, cementing the newscast firmly behind rivals at ABC and NBC.
CBS News top brass announced this summer that O’Donnell would vacate the anchor chair after the presidential election in November.
What a disaster.
O'Donnell's reign in the anchor chair was an ever-evolving litany of anti-Trump screeds and screeching, as she assumed greater editorial control over the broadcast and it became a virtual mouthpiece for the DNC and the Biden administration. All that on top of her own, off-putting on-camera personality, which, if the rumor is true, was reflected in excessive demands for wardrobe, perks, and Queen of Hearts' behavior with staff behind the scenes.
She rapidly grew a reputation for being as difficult to work with off-screen as she was incredibly irksome to watch, and by the summer of 2024, even CBS brass was looking for an exit door. They couldn't outright fire her, terrified of the fallout, but somehow managed to get O'Donnell to agree to step down after the November 5th election.
We were counting the days, and then, to my consternation, spent the weeks after Trump's reelection squawking at the TV, 'Why isn't she gone yet?!' Because there she still was. I can only assume the shock of Trump's triumph had upset all the eyeball applecarts and left succession plans in tatters.
A new tag-team format emerged when she did eventually leave to music, roses, and the crocodile tears of co-workers. Maurice DuBoise and John Dickerson took over and, while it was kind of awkward at first, they have smoothed out the rough edges, and, with Paramount's increasing hands-on, slowly drifted more towards the center-left in tone.
It had promise, but, alas, it is not to ever mature as a format.
Paramount also hired the anti-woke Wicked Bari Weiss Witch of the West as the editor-in-chief of the CBS News division, and the winds of November came early.
Two days ago, John Dickerson announced he was leaving the network after sixteen years, and frissons of fear began to run up news division spines.
Bari Weiss’s CBS era begins with the loss of one of the network’s top journalists
John Dickerson’s 16-year run at CBS spanned nearly every major role in the newsroom. His exit has deepened unease among colleagues.
Well, we all knew changes were coming.
When CBS News officially announced earlier this month that opinion journalist Bari Weiss was taking over as its editor-in-chief, you knew it was only a matter of time before we started seeing major changes.
And, boom, just like that, Monday was the start of those changes.
John Dickerson — one of the network’s most experienced and respected journalists, and a co-anchor of the “CBS Evening News” — announced he would leave the network at the end of the year.
Some reports say it was Dickerson’s decision, but it could be a case of him jumping before he was pushed. The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum wrote that Dickerson “was cognizant that significant changes, including a revamp of the ‘Evening News,’ were on the way at the news division.”
There was Maurice DuBoise at the anchor desk by himself last night, as word broke of axes being swung across the globe in the far-flung CBS News division.
Scoop: CBS News’ "Evening News Plus," the streaming companion show hosted by John Dickerson, has been canceled and the team was eliminated amid Paramount layoffs, I'm told.
— Natalie Korach (@NatalieKorach) October 29, 2025
More in tonight's edition of Status.
A BLOODBATH
Brutal layoffs are hitting CBS News after its parent company announced a plan to axe more than 2,000 staff across the organization.
New editor-in-chief Bari Weiss acknowledged the cuts on the network's morning editorial call Wednesday, Semafor's Max Tani reported.
Weiss called it a 'enormously difficult day' for the network, according to Tani.
David Ellison, the chairman of CBS News parent Paramount, broke the news about the companywide layoffs in a note to staff Wednesday morning.
'In some areas, we are addressing redundancies that have emerged across the organization,' he wrote.
'In others, we are phasing out roles that are no longer aligned with our evolving priorities and the new structure designed to strengthen our focus on growth.'
The layoffs will include an initial round of cuts on Wednesday that will impact 1,000 staffers across various departments. Another 1,000 are soon to follow, the New York Times reported.
I did notice that the Johannesburg, South Africa bureau was on the cull list, and I wondered if that would also include Hamas-sympathizing foreign correspondent Debora Patta, whom I have despised forever (one blazing example of her revolting advocacy for terrorists right here).
Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle - justice at last for all the vicious, anti-Jew, pro-barbarian smears.
Of all the reports I've seen about today's CBS News layoffs, @LATimes's @SteveBattaglio has the most names of hosts/correspondents/contributors let go...
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 29, 2025
- Dana Jacobson
- Michelle Miller
- Debora Patta
- Nancy Chen
- Janet Shamlian
- Nikki Battiste
- Lisa Ling…
It appears hubs and I are not the only ones to have perked up at Patta's name on the to-go list and for precisely the same reason.
...In the correspondent ranks, senior foreign correspondent Debora Patta was let go despite having been a mainstay on CBS since 2013. Patta’s presence has almost been ubiquitous since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terror attacks on Israel as she reliably peddled the Gazan propaganda of the day.
AND SAY WHUT?
Not the 'RACE AND CULTURE TEAM,' too?!
CBS News has reportedly disbanded its race and culture unit, which was formed in the wake of George Floyd's murder in 2020
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) October 30, 2025
NBC News eliminated its editorial teams for NBC Asian America, NBC BLK, NBC Latino and NBC OUT earlier this monthhttps://t.co/meXngkNAc9
Oh, well. Bye!
A BLOODBATH
Or, as another commenter put it, 'The Red Guard is being put out to pasture.'
How do you absorb blows this heavy?https://t.co/22QRiL18pl
— Theo Jordan (@Theo_TJ_Jordan) October 30, 2025
Yeah. It's much more Red Guard going away than the former.
Oprah's buddy Gayle King isn't being laid off, but she won't be getting a contract renewal offer, either, if rumors are to be believed. It's almost as if Ms Weiss and the new corporate bosses believe a show has to earn what they pay the hosts.
Get outta Dodge - what a concept!
...Well-connected sources told the Daily Mail earlier this year that executives will 'most likely' not renew longtime CBS Mornings host Gayle King's contract when it expires in May.
The show, hosted by King since 2011, has also suffered from poor ratings.
If that's true, I certainly hope that as Ms Weiss searches for her new CBS Evening News anchor - Bret Baier and (ICK!) Anderson Cooper reportedly under consideration -
...But complications arise. Baier remains under contract at Fox News until 2028, and he told Meghan McCain on Monday that he had no plans to leave the network until that contract expires.
“I’m flattered by all the press and everything like that, but I’m in a multi-year contract with Fox. I don’t know where everything’s going,” he said. “I’m signed onto Fox, very happy at Fox and, you know, we’ll see what happens at the end of that.”
...Cooper could be a more viable option. He is already affiliated with the network through his yearslong role as a “60 Minutes” correspondent, and his contract at CNN expires soon, according to Status. But Cooper has been a face of CNN for decades, often on the front lines of its coverage of both domestic and international issues and serving as its lead New York-based anchor for election coverage, so it’s also hard to imagine he’d want to leave. (Not to mention his passion projects, such as the network’s annual alcohol-fueled New Year’s Eve special with his close friend Andy Cohen or his podcast on grief, “All There Is.”)
...she doesn't give into the impulse to rehire the vile O'Donnell, which has also been a topic of discussion. There was one reason viewship was nil, and it was the O'Donnell, pure and simple.
...Internally, Tony Dokoupil and Norah O’Donnell are reportedly seen as top contenders for the “Evening News” slot. Dokoupil interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Hamas released the last living hostages from Gaza, a conversation arranged by Weiss. To execute one of Weiss’ first ideas at the network, O’Donnell — the former “Evening News” host before it switched to a two-anchor model — hosted a discussion with former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice about the apparent end of the war once a deal was brokered.
The clock on 60 Minutes staff is ticking, too.
...Changes are expected beyond the evening newscast. Weiss is reportedly interested in shaking up flagship newsmagazine “60 Minutes,” a program at the heart of President Donald Trump’s ire at the network. Such changes could mean correspondents like Scott Pelley and Bill Whitaker are shown the door, according to the New York Post. She is also reportedly interested in luring conservative pundit Scott Jennings away from CNN, meeting with him in New York, according to Semafor.
All of it is hard to handle if it's your job.
But if you've watched their network news for all these years and seen it slide away, I'm almost giddy waiting to see what happens.
It has potential.
Like, REAL potential.
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