CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss announced new plans for the station to grow its audience in an effort to expand the station’s political appeal after a series of setbacks.
Among the changes announced at Tuesday’s all-hands meeting, as first reported by NPR, which sources from a set of journalists within the network who spoke on condition of anonymity, the network will bring in 18 new commentators similar to those at U.S. cable news giants CNN, MS Now and Fox, as well as significant cuts to commentators who disagree with Weiss’ vision for the network.
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In an all-hands meeting with staff, the network said it needed to expand its reach beyond regular broadcasts and put more emphasis on podcasting, according to audio first obtained by Business Insider.
“What I’m saying here is if we stick with that (broadcast-focused) strategy, we’ll be happy,” Weiss said.
The new hires include conservative podcasters Niall Ferguson and Patrick McGee, as well as Mark Heyman, a doctor with close ties to Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been controversial over vaccine rollbacks.
Despite having no prior TV experience, Weiss was tapped to lead the storied news organization in October after Paramount-Skydance acquired conservative opinion writer publication Free Press for $150 million in an effort to reach a more politically diverse audience.
Weiss’ hiring is one of several key moves the agency has made in recent months to appease the White House, including settling a lawsuit alleging that “60 Minutes” fabricated an interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris for $16 million and appointing former Trump administration official Kenneth Weinstein as an ombudsman to investigate allegations of bias.
Weiss’ failure
“Honestly, right now, we’re not producing a product that enough people want,” Weiss said in audio from the all-hands meeting, according to Business Insider.
But Weiss has been behind many of the recent decisions that have led to the ratings slump. The network’s town hall, featuring Erika Kirk, wife of slain far-right provocateur Charlie Kirk, saw an 11 percent drop in viewership compared to normal viewership for the same time slot.
Weiss has made several other missteps during his short tenure at the network thus far. She delayed the broadcast of her 60 Minutes show about El Salvador’s infamous CERCOT mega-prison. Weiss argued that the segment, which had already aired, needed more coverage, but correspondent Sharin Alfonsi criticized it in an email as a “political decision.”
She also oversaw the relaunch of CBS Evening News with the addition of former CBS Mornings anchor Tony Dokoupil, who has been with the network since 2016, as its new host. The show has gone through five different anchor teams since he joined the network.
“We focus too much on the analysis of academics and elites, and not enough on you,” Dokoupil said in a video promoting his new position.
However, it was not very well received.
“You don’t want ‘academics and elites’ who have actually studied a topic to outweigh the off-the-cuff opinions of village idiots. This is how we are seeing the major setbacks of the Trump era, such as the resurgence of measles and the widespread belief that voter fraud is all but non-existent,” Larry Sabado, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said in a post on X.
And that message is not capturing the hearts of viewers either. CBS has ranked last among evening news programs for decades, but has continued to lose market share under Weiss. The network’s flagship news program lost more than 1 million viewers in its first week under the new host compared to the same period last year.
This comes as the network’s parent company continues to make hostile takeover bids for Warner Bros. Discovery, which also includes CNN, another news network often targeted by the White House.
Ellison reportedly visited the White House in December and told Trump that Paramount would implement “fundamental reforms” if it acquired CNN’s parent company.
On Wall Street, CBS parent company Paramount Skydance fell 2.6% in intraday trading.
