CBS announced a big shake-up to its morning and evening news programming Monday, in a bid to reverse the fortunes of a news division that has been rocked by sexual misconduct scandals, firings and declining ratings.
Norah O'Donnell, who has been a co-host on CBS This Morning, will become the anchor of the CBS Evening News. She will be the third woman to assume weekday solo anchoring duties for an evening network newscast, following pioneers Katie Couric at CBS and Diane Sawyer at ABC. The move, which is scheduled for the summer, displaces Jeff Glor, who proved unable to lift the program out of third place during his 18 months on the job.
With O'Donnell's shift to the evening hours, Gayle King will become the centerpiece of CBS This Morning, a show that has endured a series of lineup changes since Charlie Rose was fired by the network in 2017 after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct.
Joining King will be a CBS veteran, Anthony Mason, who hosts the morning show's Saturday iteration, and CBS correspondent Tony Dokoupil. John Dickerson, the other morning co-anchor, will move to 60 Minutes.
The changes were orchestrated by Susan Zirinsky, a 47-year veteran of the news division. She was appointed president of CBS News in January and started her new job on March 1. "I think something like this creates an energy and it kind of inspires people," Zirinsky said of the changes in an interview Monday. "We are in it to win it."
Zirinsky, 67, took charge of a once-dominant news division that had been licking its wounds. In addition to the scandal surrounding Rose, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager was let go after he sent a threatening text message to a CBS News colleague who was reporting on allegations of sexual harassment at the fabled news program. Fager -- who hand-picked Rose, a close friend -- was ousted three days after the firing of the CBS Corp.'s chief executive, Leslie Moonves, who was accused by a dozen women of sexual misconduct.
After all that, the news division greeted the promotion of Zirinsky with rousing cheers, welcoming a producer who had once overseen the newsmagazine 48 Hours and was viewed as a friendly and trusted adviser by much of the network's rank and file.
"I really care about bringing this organization together both functionally and spiritually," she said on the day she got the big job. With the moves announced Monday, she put her mark on the network where she has worked since age 20.
Zirinsky said she studied the news division for months before deciding to elevate O'Donnell, a former White House correspondent who has filled in as an evening anchor, and King, who was recently named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people.
The CBS News boss noted that King brings qualities to the network that it did not have in its previous golden age when 60 Minutes made stars out of its correspondents. "Gayle has evolved as someone we've not ever had at CBS in that vein," Zirinsky said. "Sure, we've had the Mike Wallaces and the Ed Bradleys, but Gayle has this humanity, relatability, this curiosity. She's smart and people trust her."
The CBS News president also pointed to O'Donnell's recent on-air performances during the congressional testimony of Michael Cohen and the release of the report from special counsel Robert Mueller. "Norah is a game changer," Zirinsky said. "Watching her anchor the Mueller report, watching her anchor when Cohen testified -- Norah's got a big brain. She is such a dynamic broadcaster."
While Zirinsky deliberated on remaking CBS News, the tabloids were filled with speculative articles on who would stay and who would get the boot. Many of the stories included rumors of tensions between O'Donnell and King, which the two dismissed on Monday's broadcast of CBS This Morning.
"I have no beef with you, you have no beef with me," King said to her colleague. And O'Donnell called King "my work BFF."
Zirinsky said the people in the division she oversees were "relieved" that the waiting period had finally come to an end. "Now we can put teams together and build armies and really become battle-ready," she said.
In addition to the personnel changes, Zirinsky has decided to move CBS Evening News from its longtime Manhattan home to Washington, in the hope that the new location will attract more viewers and set the show apart from rival newscasts on NBC and ABC.
O'Donnell was born in the nation's capital, and Zirinsky described her as someone who is "wired in Washington," adding, "I really want to make clear that this show is not staying inside the Beltway. When you want to cover the story, what do you do? You get as close as you can. What's happening in Washington over the next year really impacts the rest of the country. This is our way in, to distinguish ourselves so that we can look at the country and really reveal America to itself."
Business on 05/07/2019