CBS News’ new editor-in-chief, conservative pundit Bari Weiss, once aspired to replace Meghan McCain on The View, a new report from Variety reveals. But despite her best efforts, she failed to secure that job.
Weiss, 41, was announced as the new head of CBS News on Monday. But before rising to those esteemed journalistic heights, there was a significant bump in the road for the self-described “radical centrist,” when she auditioned for The View chair reserved for the show’s most right-leaning co-host. The search for the latest in a long line of lone conservatives was on in 2021, when Meghan McCain exited the show after several on and off-air altercations with her co-hosts.
While Variety reports that Weiss lost out on the spot because she didn’t test well with audiences who chafed at her politics, an ABC insider tells The Daily Beast that it was her physical appearance that led the network to hire former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin instead. The Daily reached out to representatives for Weiss and McCain for comment.
According to Variety, Weiss “didn’t test well with audiences, who didn’t understand her centrist-right contrarian politics” and “her focus group scores were so low that she wasn’t invited back to guest host.”
Weiss’ agents campaigned aggressively to get her the spot on the show to no avail, but the chain of events ultimately worked out quite well for Weiss, who became one of the most influential women in journalism with CBS’ announcement on Monday. Her appointment also comes with the $150 million acquisition of Weiss’ site The Free Press—and if all goes to plan for Paramount, she could eventually also lead CNN. According to Variety, Weiss still longs to be on camera, and tried to negotiate as much in her talks to join CBS.
(ABC/Lou Rocco)
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN Lou Rocco/ABC
The former guest host’s time on The View was not without memorable moments. During her last appearance on the show in October 2020, Weiss went up against co-host Sunny Hostin over “cancel culture,” which Weiss declared was “wrong and deeply un-American.” She holds those and many other views that endear her to proponents of Trump’s MAGA ideology, as she’s often decried DEI and “the woke left” with her website and beyond.
Some have balked at Weiss’ appointment, as she’s historically pro-Israel—putting her at odds with some of CBS’ pro-Palestinian staff—and has also “never worked in a newsroom traditionally in the way that she’s going to,” one former New York Times colleague of hers told Variety. Weiss vowed to produce “journalism that holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny” as CBS News’ new head in a memo to staff, however.
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