More Bad News for CBS News as Ratings for Gayle King’s ‘Alienating’ Morning Show Plummet Amid Looming Settlement With Trump

CBS News’ embattled leadership is getting more bad news as its morning show, “CBS Mornings,” dropped below 2 million total viewers at the end of March, a grim milestone that comes as CBS’ parent company, Paramount, prepares to settle President Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News’ flagship program, “60 Minutes.” While CBS News struggles to right the ship from multiple antisemitism controversies involving its reliably liberal staff, its executives are being mocked for participating in a high-risk stunt to goose the morning show’s ratings:, a flight into space by Ms. King, the pop star Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez, the fiance of Jeff Bezos, on board one of Mr. Bezos’ Blue Origin spacecrafts. For decades, morning news shows have been one of the biggest profit drivers for ABC, NBC, and CBS – at the same time as other news programs at the broadcast networks are believed to be losing money, or just breaking even, based on the Byzantine internal methods of calculating profit and loss within a business unit. However, with the secular decline of broadcast television accelerating rapidly, all three networks have seen the ratings for their morning programming drop sharply in recent years. The shows have about half the audience they had only a decade ago. But the“CBS Mornings,” which has been in third place for decades and has endured multiple name changes and re-castings, is the worst off of the trio, lagging further and further behind NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”Data from Nielsen ratings shows that “GMA” drew 2.8 million total viewers, and “Today” drew in 2.6 million total viewers for the last two weeks of March. During that same time period, “CBS Mornings” drew fewer than 2 million total viewers. This means that “Fox & Friends” is nipping at the venerable morning show’s heels. (L-R) Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez and Gayle King are planning to fly in space in an event that CBS is hoping could improve ratings for ‘CBS Mornings.’ AP / Getty Images / APWhile revenue numbers for the morning show are not publicly available, an audience analytics company, Kantar Media, estimated that CBS’ morning program brought in $250 million in 2018, making it a bigger moneymaker than even “60 Minutes,” the one CBS News program that retains the power and influence that the rest of CBS News enjoyed in the 20th century (“CBS Mornings” does have more than 10 times the air time of “60 Minutes.”).Sources told NBC News in 2021 that “GMA” brought in $350 million for ABC News in 2019. Meanwhile, NBC’s “Today” reportedly brought in $408 million that year. The drop for CBS is jarring. In 2017, it drew in 3.6 million average total viewers and was seen as a serious challenger to “GMA” and “Today.” The drop comes as CBS insiders complain that it has “light” and “alienating” programming compared to its competitors. One individual described by the New York Post as an “industry insider” pointed to a March 26 interview that aired on “CBS Mornings” featuring the winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Bob the Drag Queen, who was promoting his new novel, “Harriet Tubman: Live in Concern.”Wendy McMahon. CEO of CBS News. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, FileThe website for “CBS Mornings” said the book is a “gender-bending story where the historic icon appears in modern-day America to tell her story through a hip-hop album.”“That’s not what people want to watch. I don’t think if you’re programming for your audience you do things like that,” the person told the Post. CBS News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.The sinking ratings for “CBS Mornings” will likely only compound problems for the Tiffany Network’s news leadership team. CBS News has been rocked by controversy after controversy, from allegations of a left-wing, anti-Israel bias to President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against “60 Minutes” for its editing of Vice President Harris’s October interview. The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating the interview for “news distortion,” which is threatening to hold up a merger between Paramount Global and Skydance. “60 Minutes” producers edited the pre-taped interview with Ms. Harris to make one of her answers to a question about Prime Minister Netanyahu posed by the interviewer, Bill Whitaker, sound more coherent.The editing was exposed after CBS News released on lesser CBS News platforms two alternate versions that showed Ms. Harris giving different answers to the question. The new format of the ‘CBS Evening News’ is failing to connect with viewers. CBS NewsThe matriarch of the family that controls Paramount, Shari Redstone, is “firmly committed” to settling Mr. Trump’s lawsuit if it will help get the government to approve the Skydance merger, Puck’s Dylan Byers reports.However, a settlement of Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, which is far from guaranteed even though the New York Times reports both sides agreed on a mediator, could come with other legal perils. The Wall Street Journal reported that executives at Paramount are concerned that settling the suit could be seen as a bribe to win the FCC’s approval. One way to try to refute that allegation would be for Paramount to concede that “60 Minutes” erred in its editing and apologize.An admission of fault – which has faced staunch opposition from the news division, according to various reports – could lead to firings or forced resignations of top executives at CBS News. The Status media newsletter reported that the chief executive of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, and the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, have stated that issuing an apology for the editing of the Harris interview is a “red line” they will not cross. Mr. Owens told staff in a February meeting, according to the New York Times, “There have been reports in the media about a settlement and/or apology. The company knows I will not apologize for anything we have done.”“The edit is perfectly fine; let’s put that to bed so we can get on with our lives,” he said, referring to the release of the transcript, which CBS News was about to finally release — after resisting for months — on the orders of Mr. Trump’s FCC.CBS News has been denounced by President Trump for its editing of the ’60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview. CBS NewsBesides the “60 Minutes” controversies and “CBS This Morning” experiencing a decline in ratings, the network’s evening news revamp has also faced criticism. Mr. Owens tried to dramatically reshape the format of the “Evening News” program after the high-paid news star Norah O’Donnell’s exit from the program. Mr. Owens of “60 Minutes” was tasked with reimagining the program. He replaced the standard single-anchor format with an unusual dual-anchor system, using two lesser-known and far lower paid anchors, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, to replace Ms. O’Donnell. Along with changing the anchor format, the executives tried to shift the “Evening News” away from a show focused on the daily news to more of a newsmagazine style, like “60 Minutes.” The experiment quickly received harsh criticism for all but ignoring major news out of Washington – the bread and butter of the evening news programs – in favor of completely unrelated, issue-based stories. The new format launched on January 27, drawing 5.2 million total viewers, but for its first full week, it averaged 4.8 million viewers. By its third week, its audience was down to 4.5 million viewers.CBS Mornings’ Tony Dokoupil interviews Ta-Nehisi Coates. CBS NewsThe controversies and ratings struggles across multiple programs, combined with her dissent on the matter of a settlement, have reportedly frustrated Ms. McMahon’s bosses and future bosses.“She’ll be gone in six months,” said the closely read Hollywood journalist, Matt Belloni, whose reporting reflects the views of the Los Angeles entertainment business establishment, in which Paramount is a key figure.Amid the speculation that Ms. McMahon’s stewardship of CBS News could be coming to an end, it was announced in February that the network would bring on as her deputy the network news veteran Tom Cibrowski, who spent 25 years at ABC News, as the president and executive editor, which was seen as an attempt to help steady the ship. Mr. Cibrowski is credited with revamping “GMA” and helping it clinch the No. 1 spot in the ratings. It’s not clear if Mr. Cibrowski was brought in by Ms. McMahon to buttress her lack of editorial experience and save her job or brought in by CBS Inc. to ultimately replace her, and if he’ll survive her exit should she be forced to resign.A network insider predicted that Mr. Cibrowski, who has ties to Ms. McMahon and her husband from their years at ABC, will have the same difficulty managing “60 Minutes,” which is known for considering itself superior to the rest of the news division, as many of his fallen predecessors.The New York Post reports that while CBS News staffers were relieved when Mr. Cibrowski came to the morning show’s 6 am meeting and introduced himself to staff, they are skeptical that he can make much of a difference considering brutal budget cuts underway.

More Bad News for CBS News as Ratings for Gayle King’s ‘Alienating’ Morning Show Plummet Amid Looming Settlement With Trump

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