Are You Surprised?
/The experimental era of CBS News under Bari Weiss is facing a harsh reality check as the network’s flagship broadcast, CBS Evening News, struggles to maintain its footing. Since Weiss took the reins and pivoted the news division’s editorial direction, the ratings have entered a troubling downward spiral, once again falling below the critical 4 million viewer mark—a threshold that has historically signaled a crisis for Paramount Skydance executives.
The Numbers: A Steep Decline
The shift in leadership and tone has yet to resonate with the broader viewing public. According to the latest Nielsen data for the week ending March 13, the program’s performance paints a bleak picture compared to its rivals:
The demographic slide is particularly alarming for the Weiss-led era. Quarter-to-date, the show has shed 15% of its audience in the vital 25-to-54 demographic. In contrast, NBC has seen an 8% growth in that same category, suggesting that viewers may be migrating away from CBS’s new editorial vision toward more traditional competitors.
The current "floundering" status is a sharp reversal from the audience levels inherited by the new administration. When Norah O’Donnell concluded her tenure in 2024, she left the desk with an audience of nearly 5.4 million.
While Tony Dokoupil’s debut under the new leadership initially showed promise—peaking at 4.6 million viewers during his second week—that momentum has evaporated. The network’s aggressive attempts to boost his profile, including exclusive reporting from the frontlines of the Middle East conflict, have failed to arrest the slide.
The decision to overhaul the broadcast was driven by a desire to distance the show from the "enterprise and feature" heavy style of previous anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson. However, the current trajectory suggests the "Weiss Effect" has put CBS in a deeper hole:
Market Share: CBS is now drawing less than half the total audience of ABC.
Demo Gap: The gap between CBS and NBC in the 25-54 age bracket has widened to nearly 500,000 viewers.
Strategic Maneuvers: The network has even resorted to "retitling" Friday broadcasts to exclude them from Nielsen tabulations, a move often used to mask softening numbers.
As the program continues to dip below the 4 million mark, the pressure on Weiss to justify the network's new direction is mounting. For an executive team that hoped to close the gap with ABC and NBC, the current data suggests that the "new" CBS News is instead losing its grip on the viewers it already had.
