The CBS Evening Blues

Unfortunately for CBS News, however, the ratings have done far more than merely slip a few points since the relaunch of the venerable show—they've started to collapse. For the week of February 10, the "Evening News" declined a staggering 24 percent in the advertising-coveted 25-54 demographic when compared to the same period as last year. In total viewers, the Bill Owens-led show last week fell 14 percent year over year. Meanwhile, its competitors were mostly up. ABC News posted a six-percent gain in the 25-54 demographic and NBC News posted an eight-percent gain. In total viewers, ABC News was up three percent and NBC News was slightly down one percent. In other words, the audience contraction CBS News saw was an anomaly in the landscape. And while CBS aired the Super Bowl last year, which may have helped boost “Evening News” ratings that week in 2024, the picture isn’t much better when comparing numbers to 2023, when the big game was on Fox. In that scenario, the “Evening News” is still down nearly 16 percent in total viewers and 21 percent in the 25-54 demographic.

The "Evening News" has continued to decline in viewers week over week. Comparing the week of February 10 to the final week in which O'Donnell hosted the show, the 25-54 viewership has plummeted a little more than 11 percent. This past week, CBS News saw the demo fall five percent when compared to the week before. Again, ABC News and NBC News both posted gains week over week, with David Muir up five percent and Lester Holt up one percent.

"I would say it's a five-alarm fire," a veteran television news executive told me Thursday when I asked about the ugly viewership numbers. "It's almost impossible to build it once you've lost it. So to have a drop off like that suggest that this asset ... is circling the drain."

It's not like there isn't plenty of news to stir audience interest. Donald Trump has overdosed Washington on chaos, dismantling institutions, warping law enforcement agencies, seeking retribution on his critics, treating undocumented immigrants with cruelty, imposing and threatening seismic tariffs, and openly musing about seizing foreign territories. There is a lot to cover.

But the revamped "Evening News" has bizarrely opted to pull back from its Washington coverage, often sidestepping major stories about Trump’s disturbing conduct. Instead, the broadcast leans heavily on scattered feature pieces and, oddly, even weather reports—an unusual choice for a national newscast. It’s a move that reflects the sensibilities of McMahon, who came up through local news, where such segments are standard fare. But, on a national stage, the weather reports, along with the rest of the story selection, contributes to a false sense of normalcy at a moment that is anything but. The result is a broadcast that feels oddly disconnected from the most pressing national and global events. It’s probably a dream scenario for Trump—an evening newscast that makes it feel like nothing is unraveling, like everything is totally fine.

"It's mind boggling," a veteran producer who spent a decade at CBS News told me Thursday. "They took the news out of the 'Evening News!' It's not surprising the audience is leaving in droves. This has been one of the most consequential periods for news in years, and they are often minimizing the biggest story of the day to 20 seconds."

"You have to try really hard to ignore huge stories," the former producer added. "You are telling the audience that we are closed for business, go find out what's happening somewhere else."

For whatever reason, McMahon and Owens have chosen to prioritize a random mix of stories taking viewers across America rather than rushing toward the inferno in Washington, where the billowing smoke is visible from mile away and where viewer interest is clearly highest. Whether that is the result of corporate pressure or whether it is simply their own editorial preference is unclear.

Not only is the story selection odd, but the co-anchor dynamic feels awkward and unnatural. Rather than playing off each other smoothly, Dickerson and DuBois at times seem out of sync, with clunky transitions and an energy that feels more like two separate broadcasts awkwardly stitched together. There’s no real chemistry or natural rhythm to the conversation, making the presentation feel disjointed.

Whatever the reason, viewers are rejecting the new show.

The problem for CBS News is that momentum can be difficult to reverse. The ratings races between the broadcast news networks almost always remain stagnant until there is a major change that spurs viewers to change the channel and try something else. But once audiences start sampling another product, it can be quite difficult to win them back (though, we should say, not impossible). Which raises the question: Why did McMahon and Owens decide to try to reinvent the "Evening News" in this challenging moment?

"Any excuse you give the audience to change their habit is a massive risk," the veteran television executive told me, echoing what pretty much any television veteran would say. "The habits are so fragile in this new media landscape. So if you give them an excuse to stop watching, they will."

Making matters worse, this crisis isn't happening in a vacuum at CBS News. Inside McMahon's kingdom, a multitude of fires are raging. Trump is suing the network with an absurd lawsuit pertaining to "60 Minutes." Shari Redstone has been working to settle the lawsuit while attempting to push through Paramount Global's deal to merge with David Ellison's Skydance Media. "60" has also faced criticism—some of it unfair—for stories that have aired, while the botching of the Tony Dokoupil situation last year still looms in people’s minds. Meanwhile, executives keep exiting, with Adrienne Roark, who headed editorial, being the latest to announce her departure this week. Oh, and staff morale is at all-time lows. Just ask pretty much anyone on 57th Street.

It's chaos at every level. And with each passing day, the state of play finds a way to deteriorate even more. Now, with the "Evening News" struggling, McMahon has a new problem on her plate. And as one person told me, "It's happening at a moment when she can least afford it."

The Information Wars

Kash and Burn: News organizations continue to tiptoe around the reality of Donald Trump’s appointees, failing to accurately describe them as right-wing extremists and outright conspiracy theorists. The latest example came Thursday with Kash Patel’s confirmation as FBI director—a man who has spent years peddling “deep state” conspiracy theories, promoting lies about the January 6 insurrection, and openly discussing weaponizing the government against the press and Trump’s critics. Rather than calling him an extremist, major news outlets were exceedingly gentle.

CNN described him as a “staunch loyalist” and “conservative firebrand.” The Washington Post opted for “close ally,” while The Wall Street Journal used “ideological ally.” The Associated Press simply labeled him a “Trump loyalist,” and NBC News went with “longtime loyalist.” But of course Patel is a Trump loyalist—that’s precisely why he was chosen! That’s not news! What is newsworthy is that he is an extremist who has openly embraced conspiracy theories, threatened to weaponize government, and pushed falsehoods about January 6. These weak descriptors sanitize Patel’s extremism and conspiracy-mongering, framing him as merely a political operative rather than someone who has explicitly advocated for autocratic measures. By refusing to call figures like Patel what they are, the press is failing its duty to inform the public—and, frankly, it is enabling the further erosion of democratic norms.

► Meanwhile, MAGA mouthpiece Sean Hannity is ready to cheer on and mainstream using the FBI to target Trump critics: "If you were part of politicizing the FBI and weaponizing the FBI ... I think there are legitimate questions you have to answer."

COMBAT ZONE

• The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press released a Monday letter it sent the White House, calling for the Associated Press' access to be restored. [RCFP]

  • Of course, none of these letters are yielding a response. I asked Karoline Leavitt on Thursday for comment on the situation and was again met with silence.

  • Barbara Starr warned that the First Amendment "is under significant political pressure." [Mediaite]

  • Meanwhile: "Fringe media figures are increasingly present at the White House," David Folkenflik and Tom Dreisbach reported. [NPR]

  • Awkward! Matt Gertz pointed out that, while Fox News signed onto a letter calling the White House's treatment of the AP a First Amendment violation, its starts have defended the restrictions on its air. [MMFA]

• George Clooney weighed in on Paramount possibly settling the "60 Minutes" lawsuit with Donald Trump: "It has a chilling effect on the press." [Variety]

  • Winston Cho, however, observed that through a series of legal moves, Paramount "is starting to fight back against Trump." [THR]

• The disfiguring of America's institutions continues: "War Room" host Steve Bannon said he believes that the January 6 choir will be invited to perform at the Kennedy Center. [Mediaite]

• Chuck Todd went off on Bret Baier—though he didn't name him—in an interview with Sam Stein: "He now just wants to have tee time with the president." 🔥 [Mediaite]

• Mike Blinder, the publisher of Editor & Publisher, wrote an open-letter to Lachlan Murdoch: "As a leader with unmatched influence, you have the power to restore balance and integrity to conservative media. Is there a voice within Fox News—trusted and respected—who could serve as today’s truth-teller, as Murrow once did? History will remember this era." [E&P]

• Stephen King returned to X: "Just wanted to say that Trump is a traitorous, Putin-loving dipshit! Goes double for Elon!” [Variety]

The Fourth Estate

OFF THE WIRE

• Free press advocates continued to express outrage over a judge's decision ordering a local Mississippi newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing the mayor. [WaPo]

  • The National Press Club: "This is bigger than one newspaper or one ruling. If a judge can make journalism disappear with the stroke of a pen, what’s next? A free press is not a privilege; it’s a right."

• On a somewhat related note: Puck sent out invites for its third annual event celebrating the First Amendment, held in partnership with the French Embassy. This year's honoree will be David Ignatius. "We're thrilled to honor one of the all-time great journalists of this or any age: David Ignatius, a prolific and fearless columnist, and one hell of a spy novelist, too," Jon Kelly told me.

• Status Scoop | Emily Sundberg told me that her Feed Me newsletter, which was the subject of buzzy profile pieces in The NYT and AirMail earlier this month, has seen a record subscriber surge as a result of the press: "The past week has been an all-time high in both free and paid growth. Those numbers have not slowed down since the press was published. I will say, the NYT Instagram post drove more paid subs than the online or print stories."

  • "I can tell you it was enough of a bump that I can open a seasonal Feed Me office in the Hamptons this summer,” Sundberg added.

• AdWeek saw its page views surge 82% year over year, between Feb. 7 and Feb. 12. Its video views were also up 548%, I'm told.

MEDIA MOVES

• Status Scoop | Mediaite hired Tom Durante from the New York Post as co-managing editor. He will start Friday.

• Bloomberg promoted Mark Gurman to managing editor for consumer tech and hired Dana Wollman to lead its consumer tech pod. [TBN]

• Zeteo announced it will launch a new show with former lawmakers Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. [YouTube]

• CNBC International hired Spriha Srivastava from Business Insider as vice president and executive editor of digital. [NBCU]

• CNN promoted Marshall Cohen to senior reporter. [AdWeek]

Masters of the Universe

Xtortion Tactics?: Linda Yaccarino seems hell-bent on torching whatever remains of her reputation. The X senior executive has been delivering thinly veiled threats to ad giant Interpublic, The WSJ's Suzanne Vranica reported. The message, Vranica reported, has been clear: "Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else." X has been hemorrhaging advertisers ever since Musk took over in 2022—almost entirely due to his own doing, as he’s turned the platform into a MAGA fever swamp while openly antagonizing brands and behaving like an out-of-control man-child. But now, faced with dwindling ad dollars and few options left, Yaccarino appears to be trying a new approach: desperation, with a side of intimidation.

► “It’s extraordinary,” Business Insider’s Peter Kafka wrote. "Even by the extraordinary standards we've seen established in the past few weeks: A big media platform, whose owner is deeply enmeshed with the Trump administration, is — reportedly — telling companies to give it business, or risk government reprisal.”

TECH TABS

• YouTube "plans to introduce a new, lower-priced version of its paid video service, offering its vast library of podcasts and how-to clips without advertising," Ashley Carman reported. [Bloomberg]

• After Mark Zuckerberg nuked its third-party fact-checking program, Meta started accepting sign ups for Community Notes. [TechCrunch]

• A probe by Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra found that people can use Google's advertising tools to target national security decision makers. [WIRED]

• Gemini appears to be testing a text-to-video feature. [Forbes]

The Biz

• Ted Sarandos said that Netflix will invest $1 billion in Mexico over the next four years. [Reuters]

• ESPN said it will end its partnership with Major League Baseball after the 2025 season. [Deadline]

• Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to the Justice Department expressing antitrust concerns over the Disney-Fubo deal. [Variety]

• Spotify moved to expand the number of A.I.-narrated audiobooks on its platform. [THR]

The Closing Number

• License to Stream: Amazon MGM took creative control of James Bond, ending the Broccoli family's decades-long control over the world-famous spy. [AP]

  • Anthony D'Alessandro and Justin Kroll reported the deal was worth around $1 billion. [Deadline]

  • Soon after the news of the deal, Jeff Bezos asked X users who should be selected as the next Bond. [Deadline]

• Season two of "Severance" catapulted Apple TV+ to a rare spot on the Nielsen streaming charts. [THR]

• The finale of "Dexter: Original Sin" was up 27% over the premiere. [Deadline]

• Amazon renewed "Jury Duty" for a second season. [Variety]

• CBS renewed nine series, including "Tracker" and "Fire Country." [Variety]

• Olivia Coleman will star in a drama series for FX. [Deadline]

• ✂️ Cuts, cuts, cuts: Peter White reported that "a large group of crew members have been let go" from "The Bachelor" universe after "The Bachelorette" was postponed. [Deadline]