CBS News will host a town hall with Vice President JD Vance next year as part of a new event series with Bari Weiss’ the Free Press, marrying together the two organizations she serves as editor-in-chief.
The series, titled “Things That Matter,” will include a mix of town halls and debates with people from across the political spectrum. Vance will participate in the first town hall, speaking about the country and the Republican Party’s future, while others will include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.
Debates will feature Gen Z political activists Isabel Brown and Henry Sisson, dueling perspectives on feminism from Liz Plank and Allie Beth Stuckey, and Ross Douthat and Steven Pinker batting around whether America needs God.
The conversations will be sponsored by Bank of America, which joins “in support of dialogue and debate during the country’s 250th anniversary year,” according to CBS News. “Things That Matter” marks the first public collaboration between CBS News and the Free Press, though the latter’s content has appeared more on the network’s site.
“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’ decision to continue with more town halls comes on the heels of her conversation with Erika Kirk, which the network promoted widely throughout its programming, though drew a mere 1.9 million viewers. While the special handily was up beat a Christmas special running the previous Saturday night, the network was down 11% from its average total viewer ratings and down 41% in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic for the year.
CBS also retained a fraction of the 7.3 million total viewers who watched the Army-Navy game in the afternoon and post-game special, which drew 3.5 million and led into the conversation. Meanwhile, Kirk’s recent appearance on Fox News’ “The Five” drew 3.3 million viewers. Several outlets declared the sit-down a “flop.”
In the wake of such coverage, Weiss has postponed an internal meeting with CBS News staff to lay out her vision for the network, according to Status. Still, Weiss continues pursuing talent to appear on her network.
Puck reported on Wednesday that Weiss has also tried to court Elon Musk to appear for a town hall, years after he chose her as one of the journalists to disseminate the “Twitter Files.” She also added several contributors: former national security advisor H.R. McMaster, military expert Elliot Ackerman and chef and food writer Clare de Boer.
