The new boss of CBS News, anti-woke opinion journalist Bari Weiss, axed a series of its shows Wednesday and fired dozens of staff.
Weiss, who was named editor-in-chief of the network when CBS’s new owner David Ellison bought her Free Press website, told staff it was an “enormously difficult day.” The wider Paramount company was warned by Ellison to expect widespread firings.
The biggest casualty was the entire show CBS Saturday Morning, with co-hosts Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson and its executive producer, Brian Applegate, all getting the axe.
Sources told The New York Post that the show was found to be “too expensive” by Weiss and network president Tom Cibrowski. CBS News declined to comment, leaving it unclear what will air on the show’s regular 7a.m. to 9a.m. slot this Saturday morning.
Miller, 57, had worked at CBS for 21 years, while Jacobson, 53, has been at the network for 11 years.
The high-profile exits follow the resignation on Monday of CBS Evening News anchor John Dickerson, who had worked at CBS for 16 years. The Post reported that the show’s co-anchor, Maurice DuBois, is expected to follow Dickerson out the door. CBS bosses have struggled for decades to find a path for the Evening News, once fronted by Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, but in recent years stuck in third place and anchored by a revolving door of names including Katie Couric, Scott Pelley and Jeff Glor.
Weiss axed somewhere under 100 staff Wednesday but more are expected to take the total up to three figures. The network, in common with its peers NBC, ABC and Fox, is suffering a long-term decline in viewership.
She also canceled two streaming shows, CBS Evening News Plus and CBS Mornings Plus, the latter co-hosted by CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokupil, who had been seen as a rising star inside CBS News. The network’s race and culture unit has been “gutted” according to reports while its Johannesburg, South Africa, bureau was closed and the reporter there fired.
The news firings will be followed by more across CBS’s parent company Paramount. Ellison, its CEO and the son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, is pushing through a $2 billion cost-cutting plan and will lay off a total of 1,000 employees.
“In some areas, we are addressing redundancies that have emerged across the organization,” Ellison wrote in a memo to staff Wednesday. “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. Ultimately, these steps are necessary to position Paramount for long-term success.”
It remains to be seen how CBS’ news programs will change under Weiss but many expect a rightward shift in line with her Free Press which has run stories on its Substack such as “I Can Explain Why the Nazi Salute Is Back,” and “I Used to Hate Trump. Now I’m a MAGA Lefty.”
Weiss has reportedly sounded out Fox News anchor Bret Baier as a possible successor to Dickerson on CBS Evening News and is courting CNN’s MAGA contributor, Scott Jennings.
The network’s change of hands was approved by regulators after it paid Donald Trump $16 million to end the president’s legally dubious lawsuit over the editing of 60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris interview.
The settlement was ordered by Shari Redstone, Paramount’s previous owner, at a time that Ellison’s proposed takeover was in front of the Federal Communications Commission’s Trump-loving chairman, Brendan Carr.
Stephen Colbert’s show was also axed at the end of its current run just before the ownership change.
Since then, the network has been attempting to ingratiate itself with Trumpland. In September, the network bowed to Kristi Noem’s demands to air unedited interview footage after the DHS Secretary complained she got a bad edit on the network.
CBS is also reportedly trying to get President Trump to come on the air for a 60 Minutes interview.
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