CBS is on the cusp of suffering the “worst June ever” after the network’s new right-leaning leadership slashed its talent pool.
After the network fired longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley in early June, its morning show, CBS Mornings, dropped from 1.8 million viewers to 1.59 million viewers, according to a new report from Status. The 11% dip in viewership also includes a 33% dip in viewership from the lucrative 25-54 demographic.
CBS Mornings is already coming off its worst May ever, which has extended into June. The show has already suffered its lowest-rated quarter ever.
The dip in viewership has alarmed CBS executives, according to Oliver Darcy‘s reporting, particularly because CBS Mornings generated a significant chunk of the network’s advertising revenue.
“Ratings declines translate directly into revenue declines,” Darcy wrote. He also said that the numbers were “yet another sign that CBS News is grappling with a broader brand image problem under [Bari] Weiss,” and that her tenure is “alienating [CBS’] core audience.”
“Her editorial overhaul and never-ending series of self-inflicted public relations disasters have alienated the network’s core audience, driving viewers away not only from the programs she has directly reshaped, but from other corners of the news division as well,” he wrote. “And as network executives have repeatedly stressed to me, once those viewers are gone, it is very difficult to win them back.”
CBS brass has not publicly indicated that they are displeased with Weiss’ tenure. Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, a Trump ally, is said to be “thrilled” with the network’s direction under Weiss.
The news provides statistics to back the narrative that CBS has been in shambles since it was handed to Weiss, who had no broadcast television experience before becoming the network’s editor-in-chief. The Status report said the new numbers show Weiss is “still presiding over some of the worst ratings in the program’s history.”
Since she was hired last year, she installed Tony Doukopil to anchor CBS Evening News, but the show regularly fails to cross the 4 million view benchmark. 60 Minutes, the network’s legendary journalism program, has hemorrhaged on-air talent, while Weiss installed Nick Bilton, a tech journalist who also had no broadcast television experience, as its new executive producer.
One of Bilton’s first acts was to fire longtime journalist Pelley after the pair had a much-publicized blow-up. Pelley accused Bilton and Weiss of incompetence and of pressuring journalists to include unproven and biased information into their stories.