The times? They are a’changing. And that’s especially true at the CBS Evening News, as Norah O’Donnell is out and John Dickerson, Maurice DuBois, and Margaret Brennan are in.
After more than five years in the anchor chair, O’Donnell exited the longest-running nightly news program to instead focus on high-profile interviews as a correspondent for the network. In the shift, the network moved the show’s operations to New York, and launched a new format as Dickerson, DuBois, and Brennan began their tenures leading the brand.
The show began with Dickerson and DuBois on the set, with the top story focused on the Chinese AI firm Deepseek rocketing to the top of app stores, coinciding with the loss of more than $600 billion in market value for tech firm NVIDIA. 60 seconds into the broadcast, Brennan — based in Washington D.C. — joined the program to share her insights.
The new format is immediate in the first episode under new anchors. Gone is the focus on cramming as many news stories and much information into the half-hour block as possible. Instead, it’s clear the focus is on more enterprise storytelling and a more conversational tone, coupled with a slower pace.
And the change makes sense. The CBS Evening News is lagging behind competitors ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News in the ratings. Roughly 2 to 3 million more people watch those evening news broadcasts than CBS. So, ultimately, what does the show have to lose by trying something different?
Additionally, I think the move is a wise one, too. News consumers can, and do, get news headlines from anywhere — and I mean anywhere — today. So, regurgitating things they’ve already seen on social media, the internet, or on other programs shows a complete lack of understanding of today’s media cycle.
So CBS Evening News taking a differing approach, slowing things down and taking an approach similar to that of 60 Minutes for its evening news program, sounds like a winning strategy. 60 Minutes, by the way, hit ratings as high as 11 million people during its 57th season.
The second story in the show was a nearly five minute package centered on an American soldier of Chinese heritage selling military photographs to an undercover Chinese spy, reported by Jim Axelrod. After the conclusion of the package, Axelrod appeared on set to contextualize the story and answer questions from Dickerson and DuBois for an additional details on the story.
In total, more than six-and-a-half minutes were dedicated to the story. This might not sound like much, but once commercials are removed, the CBS Evening News only consists of just over 20 minutes of actual content. A quarter of the show dedicated to one story — that doesn’t rise to the level of potentially the biggest story of the week, month, or year — would be an eternity compared to other nightly news shows.
But the deeper reporting and more involved presentation granted the topic more heft, for lack of a better term. It helped produced a bigger punch than if it was a maybe 90-second story in a previous iteration of the show.
Frankly, in my opinion, there are plenty of places to get less-than-90-second news stories. But what CBS News does best is longer, more in-depth, enterprise reporting that allows for a deeper understanding of important and complex issues. The news world — and news consumers — could use more of that in 2025.
There’s still a place for the rapid-fire news segment that nightly news viewers are accustomed to. Following Axelrod’s story, a news roundup showcased four news stories in 40 seconds.
It proved to be a mix of both fast-paced news nuggets mixed with well-thought-out and well-researched news stories not available anywhere else. The updated graphics utilized movement to continue to draw a viewer’s attention and keep younger attentions spans — notoriously short — from being bored by the presentation. It feels like a more sustainable broadcast model, if that makes sense. As a news viewer, I’ll be much more interested in reporting and well-placed sources than a rehash of headlines and analysis I can get anywhere else.
Ultimately, I like the change made by the CBS Evening News for a variety of reasons. It shows a deep understanding of how the network views itself, a firm grasp of who it is, what it is, and what viewers expect from it. The wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented here. But if you’re trying to do the same things as your competition and failing, you need to do something differently. That might be what I like most about the revamped strategy. You’re getting beat by ABC News and NBC News. CBS News had to do something differently and did.
The top comment on the full episode published to YouTube compared the new newscast to PBS NewsHour. And I couldn’t have put it better. CBS Evening News has undergone a shift. And I think, and truthfully hope, it’s a good one.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
