The CBS EVENING NEWS is one of the more storied names in broadcasting history. It has existed with that monicker for more than 60 years and was the first nightly network newscast to occupy a half-hour. It actually has roots that go all the way back to 1941, when Richard Hubbell anchored two daily 15-minute recaps, the latter toward the end of its broadcast day at 8 PM. Most people–well, at least Baby Boomers–will connect it with its anchor of 19 of its most successful years, the paternal Walter Cronkite, who would always button even the goriest of shows showing vivid film directly from Vietnam with the assurance “And that’s the way it is”. Subsequently, Dan Rather enjoyed an even longer 24-year run of his own, even if he had to share two of them with an ill-fated nod to “inculsivity” with co-anchor Connie Chung. After Rather’s “retirement”–reportedly a forced one after reports had surfaced that forged documents had been utilized in an analysis of George W. Bush’s Texas National Guard record (which as the show’s Managing Editor he had final responsibility for fact-checking) it’s been helmed for the last 20 years by the likes of Katie Couric, Scott Pelley and, most recently, Norah O’Donnell–all of whom had come from the network news pool.
But beginning tonight, its latest iteration will again feature a two-person anchor team, this time the prolific and DNA-gifted John Dickerson (his mom Nancy was one of the first female network news anchors at both CBS and NBC) and the veteran anchor of CBS New York’s lead-in block Maurice DuBois. Oh and for good measure DuBois’ weatherman colleague Lonnie Quinn will also have a prominent role, apparently with as much potential air time as other network veterans, including current FACE THE NATION host and accused Republican antagonist Margaret Brennan.
PEOPLE MAGAZINE’s Kyler Alvord dropped a preview piece late last week that attempted to spin all of this change in the best possible light:
CBS Evening News is returning to its New York City roots as the network reimagines its legacy broadcast in a modern era. The network used CBS Evening News’ latest transition as an opportunity to refocus its storytelling approach and make high-tech upgrades to the studio, which has been out of commission and operating as a workspace since 2016.
“People have the news all day in their pockets, and we’re not trying to compete with that,” Dickerson, 56, tells PEOPLE of the team’s vision. “What we can share is the perspective that comes from the deep reporting that our correspondents do. That’s a CBS News strength — our experienced correspondents and the people working on the show who have spent their lives trying to figure out how to make a complicated world understandable.”
While nightly newscasts have historically been structured as a series of packaged segments presented by a lead anchor at the desk, CBS Evening News — under the direction of incoming executive producer Guy Campanile and supervising producer Bill Owens — will put less weight on the talent in the studio and more emphasis on the stories that Dickerson and DuBois explore in live time with correspondents around the world.
It sure sounds like how local newscasts have been produced for decades, and given that current CBS NEWS czar Wendy McMahon spent the majority of her career on the local side–a majority of that time in promotion–that shouldn’t come as a surprise. And after all, local newscasts historically have been watched by larger and broader (read that younger and more diverse) audiences than their network counterparts have been. As THE NEW YORK POST’s Ariel Zilber noted in her own preview story last week, in CBS’ current state, that fact of life is indeed the elephant in this room:
The “Evening News” averaged just 4.6 million total viewers in the most recent quarter and less than 670,000 in the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic — trailing “ABC World News Tonight” and “NBC Nightly News.”
Sure seems like CBS was in need of an overhaul. And besides, the concept of a news program based around a single personality these days is connected with opinion, and CBS is wisely eschewing going that route. They’ve already got enough obstacles in front of them to get their merger with Skydance done–and late last night new reports of challenges being filed by a jilted suitor suggest that on top of the current administration’s admonishment it may not be a done deal even now.
But the idea of taking a network newscast and giving equal billing to a national weather segment helmed by someone embedded in local storytelling (forecasting went out the window long ago) seems counterintuitive. If anything was underscored by the recent upsurge of audience uptick during this month’s horrendous fires, where just about every local Los Angeles station airing news showed significant upticks, it’s that people care far more about what directly affects them in weather and climate rather than some distant observers’ version of it.
There was apparently enough concern about that very fact to force the hand of another cost-conscious broadcaster determined to homogenize weathercasting into reversing course, as THE DESK.NET’s Matthew Keys reported last week:
Allen Media Group has reversed some of its plans to lay off more than 100 local television meteorologists and outsource regional weather forecasts to its production facilities in Atlanta, The Desk has learned.
Last week, executives at Allen Media said they intended to build a new regional TV weather forecast center at The Weather Channel’s studios in Atlanta, and invite some local TV meteorologists to apply for positions there. The overwhelming majority of Allen Media’s TV forecasters were to be laid off as part of the plans, and some meteorologists had already received pink slips.
On Thursday, executives at Allen Media began reversing course, notifying some stations that plans to lay off the remaining local TV meteorologists were being put on hold. Statement managers at WAAY (Channel 31, ABC) in Huntsville, Alabama and WTVA (Channel 9, NBC) in Tupelo, Mississippi were among those notified by the change. At those two stations, local TV meteorologists will continue to have a job for at least the foreseeable future.
So, too, will Lonnie Quinn. He’s apparently going to continue his role on CBS NEW YORK’s earlier evening newscasts at the same time he’s taking on this larger role. Sounds like he might be a little compromised in preparation, but hey, look at the cost efficiency.
And that’s my biggest peeve in elevating those with local station perspectives to managing network news operations concurrently. They’re two different animals, and while CBS’ audience is trailing its direct competitors it’s still exponentially higher than the nightly reach of newscasts on MSNBC, CNN and even FOX NEWS. If the desire was to break away from how the news is traditionally covered, perhaps an integration of a panel discussion format akin to what the daily MEET THE PRESS iteration on NBC NEWS NOW–or even a less biased version of what THE VIEW or THE FIVE offer their congregations–might have been in order. They could have even borrowed a page from the soon-to-be extinct AROUND THE HORN on ESPN and integrate all of those correspondents virtually. Journalists came up with those formats, not local station promotion executives.
Of course, the supposed end game here isn’t strictly limited to linear audiences. Much as McMahon already has done with CBS MORNINGS, there will be an overflow extension that will attempt to pivot viewers to a follow-up show on digital FAST channel CBS NEWS 24/7. And as NEWSCAST STUDIOS’ Michael P. Hill reported in December, there’s a programming cost-cutting measure involved as well:
When CBS relaunches its venerable “Evening News” franchise in 2025, it’s also getting a plus-branded companion…Dickerson left “The Daily Report” on CBS News 24/7, the network’s 24-hour free news streamer, earlier in 2024 to prepare for his new “Evening” role. He will solo anchor “Plus(“).
The half-hour program will air at 7 p.m. local time immediately following the first 30 minutes of “CBS Evening News.” To start, it will be available on the network’s streaming platforms as well as on three California stations the network owns — KCBS in Los Angeles, KPIX in San Fransisco (sic), KOVR in Sacramento — as well as WFOR in Miami, Florida.
BREAKING NEWS: Per listings we have literally just triple-checked, neither KCBS nor WFOR will air PLUS tonight, and the northern California outlets will air PLUS at 4 and 4:30 pm, respectively, mixed into blocks with its respective CBS NEWS local blocks supplemented by recently added afternoon double runs that West Coast affiliates only can take advantage of.
Wonder when we can look forward to that reporting from this dream team–or, for that matter–any local market performance stories of any iteration of PLUS? Hmm, Ms. McMahon? You don’t have anyone handy to do that? Plenty of us are out there to do that job cheap.
Or you can always repurpose another local weatherperson.
Until next time…