SIGNING OFF

Evening News Anchor Quits Amid Network’s Trumpy Rebrand

CBS’ new leadership is reportedly trying to make the network more like the president’s favorite news channel.

CBS Evening News co-host John Dickerson is leaving at the end of the year amid a push from the network’s new editor-in-chief to replace its on-air talent with Fox News personalities.

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“I am extremely grateful for all that CBS gave me—the work, the audience’s attention and the honor of being a part of the network’s history—and I am grateful for my dear colleagues who’ve made me a better journalist and a better human,” Dickerson wrote in a post on Instagram. “I will miss you.”

Dickerson, who spent 16 years at CBS, is the network’s first high-profile exit since its parent company Paramount merged with billionaire David Ellison’s Skydance in August.

Earlier this month, Ellison—who like his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is friendly with President Donald Trump—installed conservative political commentator Bari Weiss as the head of the CBS News.

Weiss reportedly wants to recruit Fox News host and chief political anchor Bret Baier to join CBS, possibly to host Evening News, even though Baier’s current contract with Fox runs through 2028.

Baier downplayed those reports on a Monday episode of Meghan McCain’s podcast.

“I’m flattered by all the press and everything like that, but I’m in a multi-year contract with Fox,” he told McCain. “I don’t know where everything’s going. I’m signed onto Fox, very happy at Fox, and we’ll see what happens at the end of that.”

Other names are also being discussed to replace Dickerson and his CBS Evening News co-anchor Maurice DuBois, both of whom took over earlier this year as part of a format revamp, Status reported last week. DuBois has not yet made any announcement about his future.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, CBS News president and executive editor Tom Cibrowski said Dickerson “epitomizes the very best of journalism.”

“He will co-anchor the CBS Evening News until the holidays, when he will say farewell. Until then, we’ll have plenty of time to thank him for his work here and honor his contributions to our success,” the statement said.

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The long-time political correspondent had previously hosted Face the Nation and co-hosted CBS This Morning with Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King, and served as the network’s political director and chief Washington correspondent.

He also spent 12 years covering politics for Time magazine, including serving as its White House correspondent for four years. He has interviewed Trump nearly 20 times over the course of his CBS career, the network said.

He also interviewed former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George Bush, and Jimmy Carter.

In July, Dickerson ripped into the network’s parent company after it paid $16 million to Trump’s presidential library in order to settle a $20 billion lawsuit the president had brought over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris last year.

“Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust?” he asked.

At the time, Paramount was still seeking regulatory approval from the Trump administration for its merger with Skydance. The newly formed Paramount Skydance is now trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN and HBO.

Weiss, a former New York Times opinion writer who founded the political site The Free Press, has made it clear she wants to make CBS more like Trump’s favorite news channel, Fox.

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During her first week at CBS, she quizzed the staff of 60 Minutes about why “the country” thought their program was biased, and tried to book former secretary of state Mike Pompeo to appear on a panel discussing this month’s ceasefire in Gaza, The New York Times reported.

Pompeo, however, could not participate because he has an exclusive on-air contract with Fox News.

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