Bari Weiss Makes Another Big Change at CBS News
What To Know
- CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has tapped Norah O’Donnell to temporarily co-host CBS Mornings as the network continues its search for a replacement for Tony Dokoupil.
- A former CBS Mornings co-anchor and current senior correspondent, O’Donnell will also promote her new book during her guest hosting stint.
- O’Donnell recently spoke about the challenges and uncertainty caused by frequent leadership changes at CBS.
CBS Mornings is still looking for a new permanent co-host after Tony Dokoupil was promoted to CBS Evening News anchor in January, and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss might have found the perfect replacement.
According to New York Post sources, Weiss and other executives asked CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell to lead CBS Mornings next Monday (February 23) through Wednesday (February 25) while she is in New York for her book tour.
O’Donnell, who previously co-anchored CBS Mornings from 2012 to 2019, will discuss her new book, We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America, co-authored with Kate Andersen Brower, on the Monday to Wednesday broadcasts and on CBS Sunday Morning, per a CBS press release.
One source told the Post that O’Donnell is just one of a rotating line-up of fill-in hosts until the network settles on Dokoupil’s permanent replacement. However, another suggested that something more could be in the works after Weiss commented on the strong ratings O’Donnell did when she previously co-hosted alongside Gayle King.
O’Donnell co-hosted CBS Mornings with King and Charlie Rose before moving on to anchor CBS Evening News. She was replaced on the evening broadcast in January 2025 with John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois. The Dickerson and DuBois pairing lasted less than a year before Weiss replaced them with Dokoupil.
Since stepping away from CBS Evening News, O’Donnell has remained at the network as a senior correspondent, with her reports featured across several shows, including 60 Minutes.
The longtime journalist opened up about the leadership changes at CBS on The Jamie Kern Lima Show on Tuesday (February 17), noting that her colleagues are “fearful” about the network’s future.
“I have worked at CBS now for, oh my goodness, probably almost 14 years, and have had a great career, whether it was covering the White House, anchoring the morning show, anchoring the evening news, working for 60 Minutes‚” O’Donnell said, per The Daily Beast.
She continued, “We have had a lot of leadership changes at CBS. That has been challenging, not only for me, but I know for my colleagues. And I think with so many leadership changes, people are fearful about what the future means.”
O’Donnell’s comments follow news that Anderson Cooper will be leaving 60 Minutes after the current broadcast season.
CBS Mornings, Weekdays, 7a/6c, CBS
Conversation20 Comments
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J
Isn't this sort of a step down for O'Donnell? This Weiss lady sure is screwing up what used to be a perfectly good (and reputable) network.
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P
Reputable? LMAO!! This is the network that literally FAKED DOCUMENTS and presented them as news.
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C
Bari Weiss, along with the Ellisons, who own CBS Paramount, has turned CBS into the network version of FOX: a propaganda arm of the Trump administration. She’s already made 2 huge blunders stifling the 60 Minutes segment on the prison in El Salvador holding deported immigrants and the Steven Colbert segment on James Talerico who is running for Texas senate seat. In canceling them for Trump, the segments got even more views than if they hadn’t been cancelled!
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F
Fire this person Bari Weiss… she knows NOTHING ABOUT NEWS OR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS… she obviously works for TRUMP… fire her before she takes the news department into the toilet!!
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O
It definitely appears CBS is on Trump's payroll.
No more CBS or their advertisers for me and others.
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M
I was surprised she didnt name Kid Rock to co-host in the name of fairness
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B
How did Weiss end up incharge of the candy store. She got rid of the two ladies doing Saturday morning. I liked both of them. I never like Nora or Margaret. They both slant the news. They need to move Weiss along before she does anymore damage.
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J
She has 'ties' to the current administration, and this is part of their plan.
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M
CBS is a disreputable channel. My family has boycotted this site and its advertisers. Bari Weiss is a clown. Firing mostly black staff and censorship is totally Facist. Loser channel. We are putting our money elsewhere thank you.
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B
Gotta be a liberal
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J
Get rid of Gayle King!
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C
if that happens, will she return to Anchor at Channel 3 WFSB Hartford, CT where she worked for years?
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M
Murrow and Cronkite must be spinning like lathes in their graves at what has become of their network. Now a wholely owned subsidiary of trump Inc, it's an embarrassment to journalism. The only thing worth watching on CBS anymore is the NFL.
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M
CBS started going downhill when Dan Rather took over from Cronkite. He’s a loser for shutting out Walter after he retired. Bad move as Walter was very well liked.
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Q
When Charlie Rose was in the morning lineup, real, substantive news was the focus of the show. After he left, the O'Donnell left, the show has become so much fluff, focusing on celebrities,avoiding any real news beyond a 30 second sound bite. They have become a QVC copy, selling crap on their show. Since it has ceased being a news program, I have ceased being a viewer. Barri Weiss should be removed from her position, preferably fired outright.
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E
There are those who want to spew this nonsensical claim that the Trump administration is calling the shots at CBS, and having zero evidence or proof to support their claims, and knowing those claims are nonsense. What we're seeing is the FCC "enforcing the rules" that previous FCC chairpersons and boards have failed to enforce, and it's very apparent that legacy media organizations have some bad actors and loyal viewers who don't believe in accountability, and think the rules don't apply to them, and we see the pushback from those same parties who seem very set and stuck in their ways (as in their minds are already made up, and they're used to doing things a certain way and have gotten away with it for too long) and aren't open to such needed changes.
What people have to understand is networks like CBS, as well as ABC, NBC/Telemundo, Fox, CW, Univision, and PBS/NPR and their local affiliates are licensed broadcasting entities, and are therefore subject to FCC scrutiny, or they risk paying hefty fines and/or having their broadcasting licenses taken away from them if they don't obey (or adhere to) "public interest" responsibilities and other rules. And the "equal time" rule is in place for a legitimate reason as well. I'm just sayin'.
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R
The Equal Time rule doesn't seem to apply to Fox News, NewsMax or AM radio, where conservative voices dominate. If you don't see a pattern here then you are willfully blind.
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M
...or just not that bright, like most maga ts
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E
The thing that you might seem to be forgetting or overlooking, with all due respect, is Fox News Channel, NewsMax, News Nation, CNN, and MS NOW aren't over-the-air (or terrestrial) broadcasting entities, as they're available to paying cable/satellite and streaming service customers (one of those you get what you pay for kind of things), and don't have to follow "equal time" rules like free over-the-air ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC/Telemundo, PBS/NPR, and Univision networks and their licensed local affiliate stations are required by law (and FCC rules) to do. I find it most unfortunate that there appears to be too little common sense in society.
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R
You are correct about cable stations versus over-the-air stations, like CBS, ABC, or NBC, however your argument starts to fall apart when you factor in AM radio, which has been a hotbed of conservative voices for many years. In fact, conservative voices are often the only voices you will hear in most (practically all) rural markets in the U.S. Rush Limbaugh dominated AM radio for years in these markets and, since he has passed, others have taken his place. I am pretty sure those stations never presented a liberal or Democratic viewpoint, and still don't, to this day. And in many rural markets the only radio that is available is AM radio, so that's all this audience hears, day in and day out. It's important to note that the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine during Reagan's presidency paved the way for Limbaugh, who proved to Roger Ailes that their was an audience for conservative views, and Ailes started Fox News about 9 years after the Fairness Doctrine was repealed. Conservative voices dominate AM radio, social media (Twitter specifically), as well as cable news (MS Now's audience is tiny compared to Fox News). And Trump has bullied CBS and ABC as well to sanitize the news and criticism of him. I don't know about you, but I prefer not to live in a country where the Dear Leader is treated like a king. I am old enough to remember when the Conservative media their minds when Obama wore a tan suit in the Oval Office.
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