A CBS News sign in Manhattan. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Next Monday, CBS News will embark on another new era for the “CBS Evening News,” with Tony Dokoupil taking the reins of the venerable nightly broadcast. His first two weeks on the job will include a 10-cities-in-10-days “Live from America” tour—originating from Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and more—intended to reset the network’s connection with the broader country.
A lot is riding on the experiment. The appointment of Dokoupil and the kickoff tour serve as one of the first major programming decisions linked to Bari Weiss since becoming the network’s editor-in-chief. Yet the idea of a reset also applies to Weiss herself, who needs to demonstrate at least some acumen in the new-to-her realm of television news after a rocky start to her tenure—one marked by ratings blows, difficulty luring top talent, and the recent public relations fallout surrounding the network’s flagship news program, “60 Minutes.”
As it stands, Weiss is signaling a strategy intended to strengthen CBS News’ bond with viewers—and introduce Dokoupil in his new capacity after leaving the network’s morning show—by meeting audiences where they are.
Weiss, however, who came to CBS via Paramount’s acquisition of her “anti-woke” Substack site The Free Press, arguably hasn’t come even halfway in addressing the concerns of employees—including, most recently, her controversial decision to yank a “60 Minutes” segment hours before airtime, a move that rattled staff and fueled speculation about corporate pressure intruding on editorial discretion.
Seemingly undaunted by the internal and external blowback, Weiss reiterated her confidence in her decision to pull the segment on Wednesday, citing the need for additional reporting, and contending that the news division needs to earn back viewers’ trust. “No amount of outrage—whether from activist organizations or the White House—will derail us,” Weiss said. “We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media.”
That contention, however, provoked a fair amount of skepticism, largely because the role of Paramount chief David Ellison looms over all of Weiss’ decision-making, especially with perceptions that the company is willing to make concessions at CBS News to win regulatory favor from the Trump administration. According to reporting by The New York Times’ Teddy Schleifer, Donald Trump has privately said that Larry Ellison, David Ellison’s father and chief investor, assured him that CBS News would become more “conservative” under his son’s ownership.
That’s the backdrop to everything currently unfolding at CBS News, including the latest tumult surrounding the “60 Minutes” segment. Whether the White House has been asked again for an interview, what the new timeline looks like, and where correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi sits inside that process all remain unclear, especially after her memo decrying Weiss’ move as “political.” But if CBS continues down the path Weiss is insisting upon, adding further reporting to air during a future episode, the refreshed segment certainly won’t be able to escape comparisons to the original episode leaked in Canada, just ahead of Christmas.
The unintentional virality of the “60 Minutes” CECOT story stands in contrast to the “Evening News” rollout, where social media amplification is explicitly part of the plan. Weiss has made clear to staff that Dokoupil’s tour should be engineered to travel on social platforms, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The network’s recent town hall with Erika Kirk, which drew shy of 2 million live viewers but generated what CBS calls its most-watched interview on social media ever, has been pointed to internally as proof of concept.
But the pressure to find programming that can break through is already proving challenging for Weiss. Although it didn’t fall under the aegis of the news division, CBS’ broadcast last week of a rebranded Kennedy Center Honors featuring Trump delivered a preliminary viewership of 2.65 million, down sharply from last year’s 4.1 million. Those results underscore that while legacy events are struggling in an era of fractured attention, forging closer ties to Trump—who emceed the ceremony—can easily become more of an albatross than a benefit, at least in terms of ratings.
How Weiss chooses to establish independence from the Ellisons—or doesn’t—will define her early tenure. For now, she is stepping into 2026 with a stalled “60 Minutes” segment to sort out, a high-wire “Evening News” rebrand to launch, and an inherited narrative of capitulation to Trump that she has already exacerbated.
In that context, the test ahead is not just whether the “Evening News” tour works or the ratings rebound, but whether Weiss can prove that CBS News’ future will be decided by what transpires in the newsroom, rather than all the noise surrounding it. If she can’t, the backlash from staffers and viewers alike could just be getting started.
FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
The Virginia man arrested in the attempted pipe bombing of the DNC and RNC on Jan. 6, 2021, said he was motivated by election conspiracy theories, which were widely promoted in right-wing media in the wake of Donald Trump’s loss, according to a new Justice Department filing. [Politico]
Brian Cole Jr. said he planted the bombs because he felt “someone needs to speak up” for those who believed the 2020 election was rigged. [DOJ]
The confession deals a deep blow to attempts by MAGA Media to portray the long-running mystery surrounding the pipe bombs as an attempt to frame Trump supporters.
Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald investigative reporter who has long pursued the Jeffrey Epstein case, asked the Justice Department why a flight she booked in 2019 would be part of the latest Epstein Files document dump. House Democrats are also seeking an explanation. [Mediaite]
A federal judged blocked the Trump administration from detaining Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. [NYT]
John Avalon put a spotlight on “the year when media capture came to America” with corporate media owners capitulating to Trump. [Rolling Stone]
White House Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced she is pregnant with her second child and is due in May. [NBC News]
Joe Rogan slammed Trump for his comments about Rob Reiner’s murder: “There’s no justification for what he did that makes any sense in a compassionate society.” [Mediaite]
The Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell slammed musician Chuck Redd for canceling a Christmas Eve performance after Trump’s name was added to the building, threatening to sue for $1 million over what he called a “political stunt.” [AP]
Lucas Shaw crunched the numbers and found “NCIS” was the most popular TV show over the last six years, while “Ozark” topped streaming. [Bloomberg]
Jimmy Kimmel addressed UK Channel 4 viewers with a Christmas message, warning that “tyranny is booming” in the U.S., and calling 2025 “a great year from a fascism perspective.” [NYT]
Although Disney is forging ahead with plans for two more “Avatar” sequels, director James Cameron said the franchise’s future would depend on how well latest entry “Fire and Ash” does. [EW]
RIP: Brigitte Bardot, the iconic French sex symbol-turned-animal rights activist, died at 91. [NYT]
A scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (Courtesy of 20th Century Studios)
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” admirably defied box-office gravity in its second weekend, falling less than 30% from its premiere, with an estimated $64 million in domestic receipts and a $218 million total.
James Cameron’s three-hour-plus epic continues to do bigger business outside North America, accounting for more than 70% of its worldwide tally—which now stands at $760 million—joining fellow Disney releases “Lilo & Stitch” and “Zootopia 2” as the U.S.’ only billion-dollar earners this year.
Despite disappointing results for its Marvel titles, Disney remains tops among studios, surpassing $6 billion globally for 2025.
“Marty Supreme” was another standout of the holiday period, with the Timothée Chalamet vehicle amassing roughly $28 million since its debut and posting the second-best opening ever for indie distributor A24.
The latest episode of Power Lines is out.
In this week’s episode: Oliver and Jon break down the five biggest and most impactful media stories from the year that was 2025, including the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery, MAGA Media’s civil war, technology titans bowing to Donald Trump, and the growing influence of artificial intelligence in newsrooms.
You can watch on YouTube—or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy the program, subscribe so you never miss an episode!
