I’ve probably spent a disproportionate amount of time chronicling CBS’ Wendy McMahon. In part, that’s because she’s been a stellar example of how to rise through the ranks from levels I’m much more familiar with–promotion director at major market stations, for example–and wind up running not one, not two, but three different revenue lines for the company–local television, news and media ventures–or what we old-timers once called syndication. You wouldn’t be wrong if you picked up on just a whiff of envy.
And I’ll preface this musing with acknowledgment to some of you who say you know her and her husband personally. I’m sure they’re nice folk and quality hangs. This is by no means a judgement on her character.
But given her track record in her multiple responsibilties I wasn’t the least bit surprised when she shook up yesterday with this act of professional hara-kiri, as reported by UPI’s Chris Benson:
CBS News President Wendy McMahon announced Monday her resignation as network head amid an ongoing lawsuit with the network filed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, wrote in a memo to staff.
“It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership,” she said, calling the past few months “challenging.”
Her exit arrived as the network is in the middle of negotiations with the president’s lawyers in a possible settlement in a Trump-filed lawsuit over last year’s 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris that Trump alleged was deceptively edited to depict Harris more favorably, which many legal experts say is without merit.
It’s nay impossible to fathom the degree of pressure that McMahon has been under, particularly in the last few months as the 60 MINUTES saga unfolded and metastized. And apparently in preparation for the show’s 2024-25 season finale yet another behind-the-scenes brouhaha unfolded, as no less than three NEW YORK TIMES reporters–Michael M. Grynbaum, Benjamin Mullin and Lauren Hirsch–brought to light:
A new flashpoint between “60 Minutes” and its corporate bosses flared last week.
For its May 18 season finale, “60 Minutes” had planned to air a segment, reported by Anderson Cooper, about the Trump administration’s order for mass firings at the Internal Revenue Service.
George Cheeks, the chief executive of CBS and a co-chief executive of Paramount, considered an idea to broadcast an unrelated prime-time special on Sunday that would air instead of the network’s evening lineup, including the “60 Minutes” season finale, according to four people briefed on private deliberations.
Leaders at the news division were uncomfortable with that idea. The prime-time special was not pursued. Mr. Cheeks did not ask “60 Minutes” to modify or eliminate the segment, one of the people said.
By the end of the week, “60 Minutes” producers decided to cut the I.R.S. segment from the weekend’s show, but for journalistic reasons. The producers said they had learned of new information from the I.R.S. that required additional reporting. “Our team will continue to report on these new details and will broadcast the story in the future,” the show said in a statement.
If one connects the dots as McMahon’s narrative indicates, this would seem to have been the straw that broke that camel’s back. But it’s not as if anyone didn’t see this coming, as the NYT troika reminded:
Within CBS News, it was widely expected that Ms. McMahon, who took over the news division in August 2023, would not be at the company much longer. Executives at Paramount had expressed concern about Ms. McMahon’s performance for months. Her detractors pointed to an overhaul of “CBS Evening News” that sent its ratings plummeting, and her handling of an October incident involving the “CBS Mornings” anchor Tony Dokoupil, who in an interview had challenged the author Ta-Nehisi Coates’s views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We weighted in previously on that incident, taking note of how the pristine legacy perception of what has been known as the Tiffany Network was dinged by a managerial act on a par with cubic zirconia. But it was merely yet another in a series of unfortunate events that have seemed to follow McMahon around like a professional Ziggy.
Remember when she set a new path for the stations by doing away with identities forged for decades, not the least of which being the muting or, in some cases, elimination of the iconic CBS eye? We took an objective view of it when it was announced, willing to give her the benefit of the doubt if for no other reason than her actual background had mostly been in marketing. A year and half-ish later, once several ratings periods with neglible positive trajectories had transpired, we had changed our tune considerably. However you may choose to spin this, all of that research and gut checking, most notably in Los Angeles where somehow the CBS name had been deemed inconsequential, the results were anything but favorable. So considering how that seemed to be the impetus for the revamp to the national newscast let’s simply say McMahon set herself up for scrutiny at the outset. DEADLINE’s Ted Johnson updated how that’s been faring:
McMahon also is exiting amid concerns over the change in format for CBS Evening News. After Norah O’Donnell stepped down as anchor, the nightly broadcast switched to dual anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, while emphasizing correspondents and their longer-form pieces. But the audience has dropped versus a year ago, and the newscast remains in third place.
And if you happened to watch how deftly O’Donnell handled things from the Vatican City as she covered the papal conclave, with Dickerson and Dubois effectively reduced to sidekicks, it was a real-time reminder that a McMahon maneuver yet again resulted in unforced errors.
Oh, and the syndication–er, media ventures–side of the biz? That’s got CBS lawyers embroiled in a battle royal with Sony over how they’ve allegedly used WHEEL OF FORTUNE and JEOPARDY!–far and away their most-viewed properties–to prop up the sagging returns of lesser shows. And there’s only so much hyperbole that can suggest that the “uptrend” of her spirit animal Drew Barrymore’s talk show is a significant enough win. That 2.5 million viewers that THE WRAP’s Loree Seitz crowed about in December was based upon Videoamp data, which CBS used for several months while it was at war with Nielsen. Once the stalemate ended, for better or worse, the same division allowed VARIETY’s Michael Schneider to report mere weeks later an all-time high weekly viewership of 1.52 million viewers had been reached. Crikey, how’d that slip through the cracks?
If you think I’m being overly nit-picky and judgmental, do remember I worked for the same detail-oriented and rarely forgiving CEO that McMahon was slated to report into when–if?–the Skydance deal is finally approved. Jeff Shell pays attention to things like this, and he keeps receipts.
And all of that has just about nothing to do with pissing off Fat Orange Jesus.
So with all of this building up like a snowball gathering size and momentum as it rolls down a mountain, McMahon at last read a room accurately and negotiated a more graceful exit than the one that she likely was facing. Johnson all but telegraphed her rationale in his report:
One senior staffer, who declined to be identified, said that McMahon’s exit was not much of a surprise given (ex-60 MINUTES honcho Bill) Owens’ exit. “It indicates that they are probably closer to a settlement,” the staffer said, while noting that 60 Minutes finished its most recent season on Sunday, meaning that McMahon had seen the show through further Trump attacks over its content.
And to her credit she found a way to attach herself to this existential fight by making it appear that she finally reached her breaking point and is standing up for democracy and freedom of the press by holding her head high and cutting ties at a convenient confluence of summer hiatus and what far too many will see as knee-bending are happening. All of a sudden, McMahon’s star with the likes of FCC commish Anna Gomez and Senator Bernie Sanders has likely risen significantly.
Good. Maybe after a refreshing summer vacay she can land with the help of one of them in an advisory role. Both the agency and the party could use a refreshing. And again, she does have vastly more experience and success as a marketer than she has had and demonstrated as a programmer, let alone as a journalist.
Just keep your expectations in line with the results she’s consistently delivered. Caveat emptor.
Until next time…