CBS Evening News Staff Flee as Weiss Pushes Network Makeover

A quarter of eligible CBS Evening News staffers took buyouts after editor-in-chief Bari Weiss told them to leave if they didn’t like her vision. The exodus comes as ratings plummet under new anchor Tony Dokoupil.

The Great Escape

Eleven CBS Evening News staffers grabbed the buyout offer, with just 24 hours to decide their fate. The packages were only available to non-union employees, creating an unusual divide in the newsroom. One staffer at the town hall meeting captured the mood perfectly: “At Evening News, people are afraid for their jobs and afraid to even speak for fear of retaliation. There has been a chilling effect within our newsroom.” The buyouts came after Weiss essentially dared unhappy employees to quit during her January presentation.

Ratings Reality Check

Tony Dokoupil’s first week as anchor saw viewership drop 23% compared to the same period last year, falling from 5.4 million to 4.17 million viewers. The numbers look even worse when compared to ABC’s World News Tonight (8.1 million) and NBC’s Nightly News (6.73 million). By late January, the show was still struggling with a 7% weekly drop and 6% year-over-year decline. Despite some bright spots, like a single night that drew 6.4 million viewers – the show’s best since 2021 – the overall trend remains troubling.

Weiss’s Vision Meets Resistance

Weiss wants CBS News to move away from “commodity” news and focus on content “you can’t get anywhere else,” believing that “people are skeptical of institutions, but they trust individuals”. She’s pushing to make CBS News “fit for purpose in the 21st century,” though she won’t rule out more staff changes. The transformation has already cost nearly 100 jobs since Weiss took charge, with another 1,000 cuts expected across Paramount.

The Bigger Picture

Even anchor Tony Dokoupil and executive producer Kim Harvey tried to talk management out of the Evening News cuts, but the financial pressures are intense. The network already axed roughly 100 employees in October, including the streaming version of Evening News. Critics worry that under Weiss – co-founder of the right-leaning Free Press – CBS is shifting toward a more Trump-friendly stance at a crucial time for journalism. The staff exodus suggests many longtime CBS News employees aren’t buying into this new direction.