CBS News is in an unenviable position right now: It’s the subject of anonymously sourced reporting and rumor-mongering that’s sowing confusion while division-wide layoffs cause pain and corporate changes add to anxiety.
Many of the reported changes at CBS have not happened yet and may never happen. But each story adds to the uncertainty and unease in the air. The latest one is about Gayle King, with Variety reporting that she is “expected to depart” her longtime TV home, “CBS Mornings,” next year.
King hasn’t commented on the matter, and her current contract doesn’t expire for another six months. So the CBS News management team is in whack-a-mole mode, trying to tamp down the speculation — and probably trying to avoid potential blowback from viewers.
All the instability stems from David Ellison’s recent takeover of Paramount and his decision to appoint Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Weiss, the entrepreneurial and opinionated co-founder of The Free Press website, is an irresistible story to the media chattering classes. People both inside and outside CBS are desperate to know what she’s going to change at the storied news division.
Weiss, who has been on the job for just a few weeks, has been frustrated about the leaks relating to her arrival, according to a recent New York Times report.
She certainly deserves time and space to get to know CBS News and think through potential changes. But just this week, there have been stories about who Weiss may or may not want to keep at “60 Minutes;” who she may or may not want to hire for the “CBS Evening News;” and now, what might happen to the morning show.
“You know the old adage: Nobody knows anything,” a CBS source remarked, pointing out that all the speculation is destabilizing in the meantime.
The news division also laid off about one hundred people earlier this week, though the cuts were foreshadowed months ago, well before Weiss was hired.
The CBS weekday morning show has undergone multiple permutations over the past decade, and King has been the central player throughout, helming the show while other co-hosts have come and gone.
On Thursday night, Variety reporters Matt Donnelly and Brian Steinberg wrote that King is “expected to depart” the show and “may shift to a different role at the news division,” potentially with “a deal to produce her own programming for the network.”
The pair also wrote that “negotiations are about to ensue,” which left some CBS staffers wondering: Is someone prematurely leaking that King is departing, and if so, why? Or is King privately telling people that she wants out, no matter what CBS offers?
All the broadcast networks have been trying to lower salary costs in recent years, so there is little doubt that CBS would want King to accept a pay cut to stay at the network in any capacity.
CBS responded forcefully to the Variety article, saying, “There have been no discussions with Gayle about her contract that runs through May 2026.”
It is highly unusual for a network to say when a star’s contract is up, but it showed that the typical window for negotiations hasn’t even opened yet.
As Variety noted, “Moving King is a risky maneuver, especially because morning-TV is built on the relationships viewers build with the hosts.”
That’s likely why CBS said in its statement that King is “a truly valued part of CBS and we look forward to engaging with her about the future.”
Her co-host on the morning show, Nate Burleson, also commented personally on Instagram, reflecting how the uncertainty is weighing on staffers at the network.
“I hope this rumor doesn’t hold up,” he wrote, calling King “a fixture, a force, and a part of the fabric of ‘CBS Mornings.’”
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