CBS News Rebrand Continues To Stumble Despite Whiskey Fridays
CBS News’s rebrand is hitting choppy waters after the latest ratings numbers rolled in. It turns out the people don’t want “Whiskey Fridays.”
About half a year ago, Bari Weiss was installed as the head of CBS News by David Ellison. The head of Paramount Skydance hand-selected the conservative blogger to lead this storied division into the future. All of that bluster despite her never having any experience guiding a project of this size.
Now, the ratings have shown Weiss’s tenure to be turbulent, to say the least. Over the last week, CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil averaged 3.807 million viewers. And, only 447,000 average viewers were in the key demo. Last year, that number was 2% lower in overall viewers. But, that key demographic was 3% higher!
Let’s toss out 2025 for a second. From last week alone, Tony Dokoupil’s show is down 8% in total viewership. In the key demographic of viewers aged 25-53 years old, CBS Evening News is down 16%.
All of this adds up into tough sledding for CBS as they try to charter a course forward. It’s no secret that both David Ellison and the rest of their leadership at Paramount Skydance want to curry favor with the current political administration in the United States. They sought to do that through tilting coverage towards conservative voices and selecting stories that highlight that point of view. But, it’s fair to ask if that’s what viewers actually want.
CBS News flounders under new leadership
Tossing a new anchor onto CBS Evening News was one of Weiss’s first moves as chief. At the Free Press, she had largely been free to pursue stories of “liberalism gone awry” with little editorial oversight. Oftentimes, their reporting didn’t know the meaning of honing-in on too small of a subject. But, that strategy has been shortsighted at best at CBS News.
Despite some significant headwinds at the network, this woman truly believes that she will be the one to put CBS back in the driver seat when it comes to viewer sentiment around broadcast news. The numbers on that turnaround look bleak at the time of writing.
“We live in a time in which many people have lost trust in the media,” Weiss argued in a press release. “Tony Dokoupil is the person to win it back. That’s because he believes in old school journalistic values — asking the hard questions, following the facts wherever they lead and holding power to account.”
What followed this appointment has been anything but holding power to account. CBS News has been involved in a number of controversies. Folks will remember the debacle with 60 minutes trying to go to CECOT to see what all of the people deported there by the Trump administration have been enduring for the last couple of months. And, it doesn’t stop there.
What does CBS’s future look like?
There have also been numerous warnings about the looming acquisition of Warner Bros by Paramount Skydance. A lot of industry insiders believe that Weiss would be given the keys to CNN along with CBS. The playbook there would remain largely the same. Which would not actually help the bottom line of the business in the way of viewership. But maybe, politically I suppose that could be the goal.
For now, CBS Evening News, the flagship program of a storied news institution continues its slide into mediocrity. The division has gotten rid of their beloved Saturday Morning reporting show. Apparently, one news magazine is a bridge too far. And, CBS News has pulled the reins back on 60 Minutes quite heavily since Weiss’s appointment. One thing’s for sure, she better get to righting the ship fast.
(featured image: CBS Interactive)
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