’60 Minutes’ Miss, Talent Show
Bari Weiss is about to revive one of the country’s most venerable news outlets, CBS News. The question is: will she be able to make money for parent company Paramount Skydance next?
The question is legitimate. Paramount executives believe Weiss, named editor-in-chief of CBS News earlier this month as part of the acquisition of its digital opinion site The Free Press, will bring “a sense of energy and fearlessness” to the home of “60 Minutes” and “CBS Evening News,” according to a person familiar with the company. Paramount brass was particularly impressed by a segment featured on the most recent broadcast of “60 Minutes,” this person says, featuring a conversation with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, with the pair telling correspondent Lesley Stahl how they helped broker an apparent peace between Israel and Hamas.
The problem? The broadcast was one of the lowest-rated broadcasts of “60 Minutes” in the first weeks of the current season. The show, hampered by a late NFL game that delayed “60 Minutes” in New York, averaged 6.9 million total viewers, and 946,000 among people between 25 and 54, according to Nielsen data, compared with nearly 10.2 million total viewers, and almost 2.1 million viewers between 25 and 54, the week before. According to Nielsen, overall viewership fell 32% from the previous week, and 54% among viewers aged 25 to 54 – the demographic most coveted by news program advertisers.
Such ups and downs are not unusual for “60,” where ratings can soar after an NFL broadcast. Still, the numbers are below the average audience for the show, which had nearly 8.6 million viewers last season as the 2024 presidential election roiled viewership. The network was encouraged by the attention Witkoff and Kushner’s interview received online, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In the TV news world, scoops are important. But so does hissing — promoting a major interview, splitting it among several programs — and Weiss, who has no previous experience running an editorial operation the size of CBS News or producing TV shows, has to master it.
There are many in the newsroom who hope she can do that. And there are others who don’t understand what she plans to do in her new place or how she will do it.
After completing her deal with Paramount, Weiss called the transaction “a great moment for the free press.” People are still trying to determine what it means for the news division she now chairs.
No one seems able to articulate the relationship between Free Press, which still publishes stories, and CBS News, where Weiss’ sister and Free Press co-founder Suzy Weiss has appeared on programs. Are the two part of a single unit? Is the free press held to the same standards of ethics and newsgathering as CBS News? There is some concern among CBS News employees that the Free Press, which is not unionized, will not be bound by the same workplace policies as CBS News, where many employees are represented by Writers Guild of America, according to two people familiar with the matter. Weiss recently hired Adam Rubenstein as deputy editor of Free Press, a move that CBS News staffers expect will give him some control over CBS News’ newsgathering direction. And yet the CBS News union expects its contract to be honored, even by Free Press staff.
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment. A spokesperson for WGA East Coast operations did not respond to an inquiry seeking comment.
Within CBS News, employees have some hope that Weiss can help grow viewership of the company’s streaming services, which don’t attract the audiences executives might like. While CBS News was early to join the streaming game, it hasn’t maximized its efforts to the extent that NBC News has, which operates a standalone streaming channel dedicated to “Today” and a national news livestreaming service called NBC News Now. In recent months, CBS has merged its national newsgathering operations with its local stations and enlisted staff from both sides to create new streaming formats and programs, including a show that takes viewers into news stories broadcast by local stations in a “whip-around” style.
There’s also a sense that some of CBS News’ best-known programs are in need of a major overhaul.
Weiss has already worked to help book newsmakers for segments on CBS News programs, having Norah O’Donnell moderate a panel discussion online with former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice, and arranging an interview between Tony Dokoupil and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Notably, no such assignments have been given to current CBS Evening News anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, who helm a revamped show that uses a dual-anchor format and has tried to focus more heavily on corporate stories rather than headline-grabbing — and has seen a noticeable decline in viewership as a result.
Despite the recent attention to O’Donnell and Dokoupil, CBS News executives have begun reaching out to talent agencies in hopes of luring new anchors, according to three people familiar with the matter. CBS News has been trying to figure out which journalists might be available in case the job offer comes their way, these people say, and would be willing to put those people in new positions at CBS News, even ahead of internal candidates — at least for now.
Such questions are not uncommon when new management enters a news department. According to two people familiar with the matter, CBS News similarly contacted agents after Neeraj Khemlani took over at CBS News in 2021, eager to see if potential candidates working elsewhere would be near a negotiating window in their contracts.
The move to inject new talent into CBS News highlights the fact that regardless of the new policies and projects Weiss brings, a host of old challenges still remain — and that these could be of greater economic importance to Paramount Skydance than any ideas it has about the caliber of reporting and journalism.
“CBS Evening News” and “CBS Mornings” have long held third place, partly due to CBS losing affiliates in 1994 after ceding the NFL rights to a still-nascent Fox. But the network can perform well, often taking first place in primetime and late night (CBS will likely lose that distinction next year after it axes “The Late Show,” hosted by Stephen Colbert).
Weiss will also have to grapple with what will likely be a highly publicized talent decision. The contract of Gayle King, the popular co-host of “CBS Mornings,” expires in 2026, three people familiar with the matter said. Renewing King is always “a question mark,” one of these people says, as the host often debates whether to continue and how to balance her job with her family. At a time when CBS News’ parent company is cutting costs and laying off staff, it is not clear whether Paramount will continue paying the morning host her current salary, and whether King will continue to do so if he is asked to make a cut.
Weiss has shown early skill at landing good “gets” for CBS News. But there’s a lot more she’ll have to master in the coming months – with little time to get it right.
