CBS Evening News is reeling from a staff exodus just weeks after editor-in-chief Bari Weiss installed Tony Dokoupil as anchor.
At least six of CBS Evening News’ roughly 20 producers have taken voluntary buyouts ahead of looming company-wide layoffs, the New York Post reported on Tuesday. The offer was only extended to non-union staffers, which the Evening News team reportedly has over 40 of.
Altogether, 11 staffers opted for the buyouts, according to the Post, which cited sources with knowledge of the matter.
“It’s a lot of people,” a CBS insider told the outlet.
Another source said, “Seems like people are jumping ship.”
Dokoupil’s show suffered a ratings bloodbath after he took over on Jan. 5—and the viewership decline shows no sign of stabilizing.
The buyout offer came after Weiss, 41, dared the newsroom to quit if they couldn’t get behind her vision at an all-hands meeting.
Weiss has set out to give the network a MAGA-friendly makeover since CBS’s new nepobaby owner, David Ellison, the son of Trump megadonor Larry Ellison, put her in charge in October.
“It’s a free country, and I completely respect if you decide I’m not the right leader for you, or this isn’t the right place at the right time,” said the former anti-woke opinion columnist, who had no professional experience in TV news before assuming her new role.
Weiss’s troubled start has been underscored by CBS Evening News’ crashing ratings and Dokoupil’s gaffe-filled tenure as anchor.
His debut broadcast was filled with awkward moments as he frequently stumbled over the teleprompter. Later, a series of awkward sign-offs, one of which saw the 45-year-old former CBS Mornings co-host “salute” Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the “ultimate Florida man,” have drawn ridicule.
Weiss replaced John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois with Dokoupil after reportedly failing to recruit Fox News host Bret Baier and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
In the all-hands meeting, Weiss compared the nearly 100-year-old network to that of a start-up under her leadership.
“But startups aren’t for everyone. They’re places that move at a rapid speed. They experiment. They try new things. They sometimes create noise and, yes, bad press,” she said.
Dokoupil’s show is just the tip of the iceberg for Weiss’s bad press.
She sparked a mutiny among CBS staffers in December after she abruptly shelved a 60 Minutes segment that delved into the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison.
Last week, anti-aging influencer Peter Attia, whom she had recently hired as a contributor, was revealed to have had a close relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. CBS has not yet fired Attia, 52, although it shelved plans to re-run a 60 Minutes interview with him.
The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS for comment.
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