“CBS Evening News” will lose at least 11 of the show’s roughly 40 staffers in the buyouts offered to non-unionized employees on the program, one source familiar with the matter confirmed to TheWrap, weeks after the voluntary packages were offered to employees who did not agree with its new direction.
CBS News did not comment.
The buyout total came a day after “Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey told her colleagues on Wednesday that she would leave the program and bemoaned the “sweeping new vision” the network has instilled on the show. The “‘heterodox’ journalism,” Hastey said, has taken space from reporting on “underrepresented perspectives, interviews that challenged conventional wisdom and efforts to make our journalism more responsive to a skeptical public.”
“The truth is that commitment to those people and the stories they have to tell is increasingly becoming impossible,” she added. “Stories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations — a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.”
The buyouts also came more than two weeks after CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss laid out her vision for the network at an all-hands meeting last month, which includes a revamped “Evening News” led by anchor Tony Dokoupil. Weiss told staff she wanted to make CBS News “fit for purpose in the 21st century.”
A CBS News insider said the total number of buyouts was expected in light of the program shifting gears with Dokoupil’s arrival, including a values-based model that promises the show’s allegiance to America and meeting audiences beyond linear television. “There’s always turnover when there’s a new anchor and editorial vision,” the insider said.
Dokoupil’s monthlong tenure anchoring the program has been scrutinized by CBS News staffers and media critics over his congenial coverage of the Trump administration, including an interview with the president himself. Some of the journalist’s coverage of administration figures has also been criticized for its friendly attitude, such as a package on memes of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and another on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
His first week also saw the ouster of the show’s No. 2 producer, Javier Guzman, which one source told TheWrap stemmed from disagreements with executive producer Kim Harvey, while the show’s ratings have also largely remained behind his ABC and NBC competitors.
The buyout offers were first made in late January, days after NPR reported that Weiss’ plans included employee cuts at the network. Weiss demurred when a staffer pressed her about them at the January all-hands meeting, saying she couldn‘t rule out staff changes as part of the network’s transformation.
CBS News laid off roughly 100 employees in October, including axing the streaming counterpart to “Evening News,” as part of cost cuts that stemmed from Paramount’s merger with David Ellison’s Skydance. Paramount is expected to cut another 1,000 people.
