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CBS News named veteran anchor and correspondent Adriana Diaz and business journalist Kelly O’Grady as the new co-hosts for “CBS Saturday Morning.”

The duo will officially start this week, the division announced Friday. The previous long-time co-hosts, Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson, were let go in a wave of company-wide staff reductions in October.

The cuts and changes at the weekend program were in the works before Bari Weiss arrived to begin her role as editor-in-chief of CBS News earlier that month.

Weiss has generated controversy and bad publicity for the network with her last-minute decision to pull a “60 Minutes” story on the Trump administration’s treatment of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who were deported to El Salvador. Critics have also been less than impressed with the revamp of “CBS Evening News” which began this week with new anchor Tony Dokoupil.

Diaz and O’Grady will also alternate as co-hosts of “CBS Mornings 24/7,” the daily program on the CBS News streaming platform, working alongside featured host Vladimir Duthiers.

Diaz has been with CBS News since 2012. She has served as a China-based correspondent covering Asia, and later reported from Chicago. Her last anchor role was on “CBS Mornings Plus,” a short-lived one-hour program that followed “CBS Mornings” in several markets, including Los Angeles.

Diaz, 42, also had a stint as anchor of “CBS Weekend News.” She is a frequent fill-in for “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King. Internally, Diaz is considered a possible successor to King who is in the final year of her contract with CBS News.

O’Grady, 34, is a recent addition to CBS joined the network in 2024 as a correspondent for its MoneyWatch unit where she reported on the economy. She had been a correspondent and fill-in anchor at Fox Business.

In addition to her co-host role, O’Grady will continue to cover business, technology and the economy for the network.

CBS News is moving forward with a series of town hall and debate telecasts with a major advertiser backing them, the first major initiative under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

The news division announced Thursday it will have a series of one hour single issue programs under the title “Things That Matter” done in collaboration with the digital platform the Free Press.

CBS News parent Paramount acquired the Free Press which was co-founded by Weiss, in September.

Bank of America will be a major sponsor of the series.

The town hall participants include Vice President JD Vance, who will discuss the state of the country and the future of the Republican Party, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman on artificial intelligence and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on the future of the Democratic Party.

The debate subjects include “Should Gen Z Believe in the American Dream?,” “Does America Need God? and “Has Feminism Failed Women?” The debaters include journalist Liz Plank, New York Times opinion writer Ross Douthat, and Isabel Brown, a representative for the right-wing organization Turning Point USA.

No dates have been set, but the programs will air in the current 2025-26 TV season which ends in May.

CBS tested the town hall format Saturday with a telecast that featured Weiss sitting down with Erika Kirk, the widow of slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. The program taped in front of an invited audience and averaged 1.9 million viewers according to Nielsen data, on par with what CBS entertainment programming has delivered in the 8 p.m. hour in the current TV season.

The town hall format where a news subject takes questions from audience members has long been a staple of cable news channels. Broadcast networks have typically only used it with presidential candidates.

“Things That Matter” is less of a play for ratings than a symbol of the new vision for CBS News under Weiss.

“We believe that the vast majority of Americans crave honest conversation and civil, passionate debate,” Weiss said in a statement. “This series is for them. In a moment in which people believe that truth is whatever they are served on their social media feed, we can think of nothing more important than insisting that the only way to get to the truth is by speaking to one another.”

Weiss hosted the town hall with Kirk. CBS News has not announced the on-air talent for the “Things That Matter” series.

Weiss was recruited by Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison to pull the news division towards the political center where he believes most of the country stands.

The Free Press gained popularity for its criticism of DEI, so-called woke policies, and strong support of Israel. The site is often described as “heterodox” and has been critical of numerous actions of the Trump administration. But its biggest fans tend to be in the business community who disdain high taxes and big government.