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The CBS Evening Blues
CBS News tried a new “Evening News” format, but the result has been a ratings disaster. It’s just the latest problem in a newsroom beset by executive exits, plummeting morale, and legal battles.
Oliver Darcy
February 20, 2025
Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson anchor the "CBS Evening News." (Screen grab)
When CBS News unveiled its revamped "Evening News" format in late January, it was marketed as a step into the future—a return to New York with a modern, sleeker feel that would showcase the full newsgathering might of the Tiffany Network. Instead, the overhaul has triggered a ratings free-fall, raising urgent questions about how the embattled Wendy McMahon-led network can contain the carnage, along with inviting deeper scrutiny over why it made such a gamble at a precarious time.
To be clear, it was widely expected that the show's audience numbers—which have remained mired in third place for many years—would slip after Norah O'Donnell vacated the anchor chair. No one expected the ensemble format, which features John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois as co-anchors, to grow the program's audience. The thinking was that while the ratings might slip, the cost reductions achieved by sending O’Donnell out to pasture and moving the show back from Washington would free up some much-needed dollars.
“We expected this,” a person close to leadership told me Thursday night. “We are in this for the long term and are confident in our long game.”
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 most recent week of February 10, the "Evening News" declined a staggering…
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📉 A ratings disaster: The “Evening News” isn’t just slipping—it’s seeing its viewers flee in droves.
🔥 TV veterans sound the alarm: A longtime news executive called the situation a “five-alarm fire”—and explained why it may be difficult to recover.
📰 A head-scratching editorial shift: While chaos in Washington dominates the news cycle, CBS is pulling back—and replacing it with something else.
🚨 Turbulence at the top: Lawsuits, exits, and power struggles are piling up inside CBS News. How bad is the internal chaos—and can leadership contain it?
The Information Wars
Kash Patel seen at a rally for Donald Trump. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
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…
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