CBS will attempt to reinvent its evening newscast after Norah O’Donnell leaves the anchor desk following November’s presidential election.
The network announced Thursday that “CBS Evening News,” which still draws as many as 5 million viewers a night, will have a pair of anchors and draw on correspondents from the division’s other signature programs.
John Dickerson, political editor for CBS News, and Maurice DuBois, a local news anchor for the network’s New York station, WCBS, will helm the revamped telecast. The program will be moved back to its former home at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, after several years in Washington, where O’Donnell was based.
It’s the first time the network has tried a multi-anchor format since it paired Dan Rather with Connie Ch
ung in the mid-1990s. ABC News also tried it in 2005 with Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff when it replaced the late Peter Jennings. Neither pairing improved the ratings of the programs.
This time around, the dual-anchor format is aiming to play up what CBS News executives are calling an “ensemble” approach that gives more on-air time to the network’s correspondents, including those on newsmagazine “60 Minutes,” which is the most-watched non-sports prime-time show most weeks. Margaret Brennan, the Washington-based moderator of “Face the Nation,” will also have a prominent role.
Bill Owens, who has run “60 Minutes” since 2019, will be supervising producer for “CBS Evening News” in addition to his current duties. Wendy McMahon, chief executive of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, said she is putting Owens in charge to assure the newscast can tap into the “the DNA of ’60 Minutes.’”
The newsmagazine has never had a single host, long relying on a cadre of correspondents.
“It should be more about the reporters than one person,” Owens said in an interview. “We are not trying to copy ’60 Minutes,’ but we want to bring in ’60 Minutes’ values. We don’t want to be following what everyone else is doing.”
The changes come after O’Donnell announced she will end her five-year stint in the anchor chair to take a new role as a senior correspondent. The program ranks third in the evening broadcast news ratings, behind “ABC World News Tonight With David Muir” and “NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt.”
“Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan interviews Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in Eagle Pass, Tx. on Jan 3, 2024.
(Josh Huskin / CBS via Getty Images)
The network newscasts are no longer the agenda-setting platforms they were in the era of Walter Cronkite. But while the internet has upended the news business, the long-running programs remain appointment viewing for more than 17 million viewers a night, according to Nielsen data.
The audience is largely older, as younger viewers have migrated to streaming platforms.
CBS has tried a series of anchors over the years since Rather left the job in 2004 after 25 years, including a five-year stint by Katie Couric, who was lured away from NBC’s “Today.”
But the network has had trouble improving its competitive position going back to the mid-1990s, when it lost a number of affiliates that provided potent audience lead-ins with their local newscasts.
Owens said the format change is a way for “CBS Evening News” to differentiate itself from its competitors. The program will offer a lower story count with longer reports and debriefings from the news division’s top correspondents, he said.
The approach worked in Cronkite’s glory days and can be an alternative to today’s faster-paced, picture-driven network newscasts, Owens said.
Owens named “60 Minutes” veteran Guy Campanile to be executive producer of “CBS Evening News.” He will succeed Adam Verdugo, who has held the post since 2022.
Dickerson and DuBois will both be deployed for breaking news coverage on the network. They had a dry run together on July 13 when they covered the attempted assassination of former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa.
For Dickerson, “CBS Evening News” will be the fourth significant assignment since he joined the network in 2009. Known as a thoughtful analyst, he is the son of Nancy Dickerson, one of the first prominent woman network correspondents in the 1960s.
A veteran Washington journalist, formerly with Time magazine, John Dickerson succeeded Bob Schieffer as moderator of “Face the Nation,” the network’s Sunday roundtable program.
Dickerson moved to a co-host role on “CBS This Morning” after Charlie Rose departed due to sexual harassment allegations in 2017. He lasted a year on the morning program before being moved off into a correspondent role.
Since 2022, he has anchored a nightly program, “The Daily Report,” on CBS News 24/7, the division’s streaming service. McMahon said Dickerson will continue to have a presence on the streaming platform. Separately, he co-hosts Slate’s “Political Gabfest” podcast.
DuBois, 58, has been an evening local anchor at WCBS in New York since 2004 and was previously a staple of the city’s NBC station.
While not widely known nationally, DuBois has served as an occasional fill-in host on “CBS Evening News,” which means he should be familiar to habitual viewers. He is known as a smooth on-air presenter with experience handling breaking news stories on the local stations.
“We’ve done our homework,” said McMahon. “We feel quite confident about his value to our audience.”
The rejiggering comes at a time of significant change at CBS. Budgets and salaries at CBS News are expected to undergo scrutiny when new ownership takes over parent company Paramount Global next year.
The company’s board and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone recently approved an $8-billion agreement to merge with David Ellison’s Skydance Media.