CBS Evening News

[Jase 1164]

25 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

 

I almost wonder if Saturdays will be pre-taped on Fridays using the weekday talent and be primarily a "best of" of the stories that ran during the week.

 

That's my guess as well. Reportedly, they have already shifted oversight of the program to the weekday team. I can't see them investing a lot of money into developing a brand new program if the idea is to cut cost/save money. 

[MediaZone4K 2663]

On 10/27/2025 at 2:24 PM, GraphicsMan said:

No surprise his job was literally in danger. Question is what happens to Maurice.

Its pretty stunning that the man with a million jobs at CBS is about to be gone.

 

John is a qualified journalist but he was shoehorned into several anchor positions he wasn't  right for like Evening News and CTM. 

 

Bringing Norah Back is not the answer IMO. She didn't click the first time, why would that happen now? No matter what they do, the show will be in third place. Keep the current quality format with Maurice as solo anchor OR give the time back to affiliates.

 

I've been saying from the beginning, Maurice should be skeptical of accepting anything network.  

 

Edited October 31, 2025 by MediaZone4K

[GodfreyGR 812]

4 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Its pretty stunning that the man with a million jobs at CBS is about to be gone.

 

John is a qualified journalist but he was shoehorned into several anchor positions he wasn't the right for like  Evening News and CTM. 

 

Brining Norah Back is not the answer IMO. She didn't click the first time, why would that happen now? No matter what they do, the show will be in third place. Keep the current quality format with Maurice as solo anchor OR give the time back to affiliates.

 

Ive been saying from the beginning, Maurice should not be quick to give up his flagship station prime slot anchor job of nearly two decades for the unstable CBSEN. 

 

Keep Maurice, but dump the format for what has become the modern-traditional evening news format that NBC and ABC are using. Accept that you will always be in 3rd place, but you're also stuck with far less overhead than the competition. Set it and forget it. The long-form stories CBS generally does well at does not work in the attention deficit ordered society Social Media has curated... Leave those on 60 Minutes and Sunday Morning. However, constantly changing the show keeps sinking them lower. 

 

If they had never pulled John from FTN, he would still be there today, and be doing very well.

[MediaZone4K 2663]

3 hours ago, GodfreyGR said:

Keep Maurice, but dump the format for what has become the modern-traditional evening news format that NBC and ABC are using. Accept that you will always be in 3rd place, but you're also stuck with far less overhead than the competition. Set it and forget it. The long-form stories CBS generally does well at does not work in the attention deficit ordered society Social Media has curated... Leave those on 60 Minutes and Sunday Morning. However, constantly changing the show keeps sinking them lower. 

 

If they had never pulled John from FTN, he would still be there today, and be doing very well.

Or cancel the CBS Evening News at this point. Be like FOX. No late night show, no Evening News (and eventually) no morning show. Let the affiliates (not that they're strong) have all that time. 

 

Unless it costs them extra to do longform, they might as well keep the current format. When they copied the competition under Norah, they were still in third. Despite my initial hesitation with the format changes, CBS actually surprised me with their best reformat yet since the Schiffer era. It seems however they weren't confident in their new product as they walked back some of their formatting from early on. 

Edited October 31, 2025 by MediaZone4K

[GraphicsMan 345]

7 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

I've been saying from the beginning, Maurice should be skeptical of accepting anything network

It’s unfortunate he’ll have no where to go WCBS could bring him back however he’ll probably demand a million dollar salary and with the climate CBS is in with layoffs they won’t take him he’s displaced if he goes. Will another network pick him up maybe. But I remember reading an article about Maurice he’s wanted a network position forever I saw a report when he was at WNBC he was trying to get every network hit possible to the point he left the station and bolted to WCBS for more opportunities and more network hits. That was 21 years ago now he made it and got a bad deal but who knows maybe this exposure could help him out. Now I’m not saying I’m on his side or anything I’m saying CBS did him wrong they did the same to Chris Wragge also but he was in a less important job. Maurice was at the highest most important network newscast flagship whatever you wanna calll it time slot going back local would be a demotion. The best move for him would to wait it out or leave.

33 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

3 hours ago, GodfreyGR said:

Or cancel the CBS Evening News at this point. Be like FOX. No late night show, no Evening News (and eventually) no morning show. Let the affiliates (not that they're strong) have all that time. 

 You think that would make things at CBS worse. They could go totally into streaming.

8 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Bringing Norah Back is not the answer IMO. She didn't click the first time, why would that happen now? No matter what they do, the show will be in third place. Keep the current quality format with Maurice as solo anchor OR give the time back to affiliates.

What would affiliates do with that time slot not every station can do an hour long 6pm newscast. Though it would benefit the central time station a full hour 5pm show.

[Georgie56 3661]

1 hour ago, MediaZone4K said:

Or cancel the CBS Evening News at this point. Be like FOX. No late night show, no Evening News (and eventually) no morning show. Let the affiliates (not that they're strong) have all that time. 

Despite both Mornings and the EN’s ratings struggles, there’s too much money at stake for the network to cede 7-9am and 6:30/5:30p to the stations.

[MediaZone4K 2663]

On 10/30/2025 at 9:46 PM, Georgie56 said:

Despite both Mornings and the EN’s ratings struggles, there’s too much money at stake for the network to cede 7-9am and 6:30/5:30p to the stations.

My question is, do those slots make the network good money, in comparison to late night which CBS says was bleeding money?

On 10/30/2025 at 6:26 PM, Georgie56 said:

Gayle will leave CBS Mornings, but is expected to stay at CBS News.

This accelerates my concerns about the morning show's future.

Edited November 4, 2025 by MediaZone4K

[Jase 1164]

10 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

I've been saying from the beginning, Maurice should be skeptical of accepting anything network.  

 

 

DuBois strikes me as someone who knows/knew the risk(s) involved when taking on a network gig. Evening News was always going to be a challenge and he couldn't go into it half-heartedly (i.e... keeping one foot at WCBS and the other at CBS). A solid case can be made to give him time to right the ship. I hope he fights to stay at Evening News.

[ATLNewsExpert 508]

11 hours ago, Jase said:

 

DuBois strikes me as someone who knows/knew the risk(s) involved when taking on a network gig. Evening News was always going to be a challenge and he couldn't go into it half-heartedly (i.e... keeping one foot at WCBS and the other at CBS). A solid case can be made to give him time to right the ship. I hope he fights to stay at Evening News.

Ideally the best scenario would be to keep him at Evening News and simply give him a new co-anchor, now, who the heck could that be? No clue at this point. Would be nice for it to be a female though.

 

Also, Bret has said on Megan Kelley I believe it was, that he is locked into a multi year contract with FOX and is happy where he is.

Edited October 31, 2025 by ATLNewsExpert

[ABC 7 Denver 1889]

On 10/24/2025 at 1:24 PM, Reweivvt88 said:

I could see why the new far right CBS News would want a far right disgrace to anchor the CBS Evening News, but why would Baier ever consider this? He has a very high profile job at a very high rated and profitable network and would be giving that up for a failing newscast at what is basically a FOX News wannabe with no audience. The FNC audience is not going to follow him over to CBS, they are going to keep watching whatever FNC airs in the slot. No matter how much money CBS offers him now, that big salary is not going to last long term as CBS News is a ratings and financial disaster.

 

Payday, write a book, and return to FNC afterwords.

 

Though I wouldn't be surprised that as this bandwagoning effect of hard right new product doesn't yield any profit, CBS considers completely shutting down it's News department or Paramount spins off CBS News and Stations completely.

[Reweivvt88 173]

On 10/25/2025 at 9:33 AM, Superdude said:

Nothing CBS has done has worked so far.  A right slant would differentiate itself from the competitors.  If it doesn't work, then back to the drawing board.  What is the left afraid of?  They still have many outlets for their spin.

The left is not afraid of anything CBS News is doing. CBS News is not and has never been left wing, so CBS News shifting right to appease a far right dictator so Paramount can get away with buying WB Discovery is not a loss for the left. Your claim that "A right slant would differentiate itself from the competitors" ignores that FNC is already competing against CBS Evening News with a right wing "newscast". Even if they somehow manage to get Bret to leave Special Report, FNC is still the way more established ratings leader for right wing programming at 6:30pm ET. Not only would they have to compete against FNC, but there are also outlets like OAN and Newsmax producing right wing newscasts in this slot. The people currently watching the CBS Evening News are not far right, so this shift will just result with them losing the small audience they currently have while the right wing audience addicted to FNC continues to watch FNC at 6:30pm. On top of this, a right wing newscast will be a terrible lead-in / lead-out for local CBS stations in the top major markets which are very left wing. FOX doesn't air right wing news on its local stations because it knows this doesn't make sense from a business standpoint, Paramount knows CBS News going right is not going to help the audience levels of the CBS News programming, it's being done to help Paramount overall under an authoritarian government. 

[Reweivvt88 173]

On 10/30/2025 at 10:12 PM, MediaZone4K said:

My question is, do those slots make the network good money, in comparison to late night with CBS says was bleeding money?

This accelerates my concerns about the morning show's future.

 

There are credible reports that CBS News is losing 50 million a year, so I think it's very possible they are actually bleeding money in the morning and evening time slots.

 

On top of this, Paramount wants to buy WB Discovery which owns CNN. Like CBS News. CNN is also struggling in the ratings. Does Paramount really want to spend money producing 2 morning shows & 2 evening newscasts that compete directly against each other for last place? I think it would be really easy for them to justify shutting CBS News down if they end up owning CNN. 

[nomadcowatbk 188]

Could Bari Weiss gain control of CNN?

[MediaZone4K 2663]

On 11/3/2025 at 1:13 AM, Reweivvt88 said:

The left is not afraid of anything CBS News is doing. CBS News is not and has never been left wing, so CBS News shifting right to appease a far right dictator so Paramount can get away with buying WB Discovery is not a loss for the left. Your claim that "A right slant would differentiate itself from the competitors" ignores that FNC is already competing against CBS Evening News with a right wing "newscast". Even if they somehow manage to get Bret to leave Special Report, FNC is still the way more established ratings leader for right wing programming at 6:30pm ET. Not only would they have to compete against FNC, but there are also outlets like OAN and Newsmax producing right wing newscasts in this slot. The people currently watching the CBS Evening News are not far right, so this shift will just result with them losing the small audience they currently have while the right wing audience addicted to FNC continues to watch FNC at 6:30pm. On top of this, a right wing newscast will be a terrible lead-in / lead-out for local CBS stations in the top major markets which are very left wing. FOX doesn't air right wing news on its local stations because it knows this doesn't make sense from a business standpoint, Paramount knows CBS News going right is not going to help the audience levels of the CBS News programming, it's being done to help Paramount overall under an authoritarian government. 

 CBS News has a center left undertone in its reporting. 

 

CBS going down THAT rabbit hole at a time like this would be a major mistake. If they supposedly wanted someone from Fox, Shepherd Smith would've been the better candidate.

 

CBS still arguably delivers the best journalistic product of the big three networks, so it sucks to see them struggle this much.

 

Edited November 4, 2025 by MediaZone4K

[NYNewsCoverage 337]

On 10/30/2025 at 11:46 PM, Jase said:

 

DuBois strikes me as someone who knows/knew the risk(s) involved when taking on a network gig. Evening News was always going to be a challenge and he couldn't go into it half-heartedly (i.e... keeping one foot at WCBS and the other at CBS). A solid case can be made to give him time to right the ship. I hope he fights to stay at Evening News.

As someone who watched him for years at WCBS (and may be biased), I certainly hope he gets a chance to stay. Ideally, I don't think they should give him any co-anchor. I think Maurice overall is perfect fit for the Evening News, and just as talented and can compete against David and Tom. I also liked John Dickerson but agreed he should have been FTN host and not bumped around to different positions/timeslots, and I don't think he was the best fit for the Evening news.

[EVVTV12 204]

John Dickerson announced his “Report’s Notebook” essays won a Walter Cronkite Award. His essays would be prefect for PBS (if it wasn’t for the cuts there also). 

[Geoffrey 960]

CBS had some trouble removing their tease squeeze that they use during the first commercial break. It stayed up for the whole next package.

[Geoffrey 960]

Maurice DuBois announces he is also leaving CBS News.

 

A shame that CBS promotes people, sets them up to fail, then discards them when it doesn't work out. Too bad there isn't a better way to keep these people.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DR2T2RhAPu_/?igsh=OWVmNjIzNmRhZHZ1

Edited December 4, 2025 by Geoffrey

[RealNews18 271]

2 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

Maurice DuBois announces he is also leaving CBS News.

 

A shame that CBS promotes people, sets them up to fail, then discards them when it doesn't work out. Too bad there isn't a better way to keep these people.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DR2T2RhAPu_/?igsh=OWVmNjIzNmRhZHZ1

Wow. That is definitely a loss for CBS. Sorry to see him go. He would've done great if he were to stay on solo, let's see the actual next step for EN 

[TVLurker 389]

John and Maurice are now officially the shortest lasting Evening News anchors in recent history. Wikipedia doesn't have it updated yet but here's a list anyways.

 

CBS Evening News might as well be a revolving door at this point. I can't believe that only Katie Couric, Scott Pelley and Norah O'Donnell lasted 5-6 years while Jeff Glor only managed 2 and now the duo of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois will finish out their year long run as the shortest tenured duo in evening news history. How can CBS fumble their news department this hard?

[brianpr3 201]

Bari weiss sucks! 

[Geoffrey 960]

I'm sure this next shuffling of the deck chairs will be the one to stick! Viewers love change!

[GraphicsMan 345]

Horrible. I hope Maurice has an agent or someone he has network exposure so maybe ABC or NBC will pick him up. I highly doubt he’ll return to local news so essentially he’s homeless. He could go to MS Now maybe, but he loves New York and I doubt he take a correspondent job outside of New York. It’s limited space for him.

[Geoffrey 960]

John Dickerson with a classy post.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DR2aCEkkaXb/?igsh=Zmpyc3R0aGFyMmN6

[NowBergen 924]

2 hours ago, TVLurker said:

John and Maurice are now officially the shortest lasting Evening News anchors in recent history. Wikipedia doesn't have it updated yet but here's a list anyways.

 

CBS Evening News might as well be a revolving door at this point. I can't believe that only Katie Couric, Scott Pelley and Norah O'Donnell lasted 5-6 years while Jeff Glor only managed 2 and now the duo of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois will finish out their year long run as the shortest tenured duo in evening news history. How can CBS fumble their news department this hard?

 

If I was a major shareholder of WBD, I'd want Paramount Skydance to stay as far away as possible.  Nothing but chaos.  No strategic planning.  No succession planning.  And despite the original intent that Maurice would continue with CBS2, that clearly was never the case, and not an option going forward.  I hope he and John Dickerson have hefty separation agreements.