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CBS’ Eleventh-Hour Call

The Bari Weiss-led network privately indicated it would snub Donald Trump’s primetime address last week, Status has learned, only to reverse course at the last minute and air the speech.

Oliver Darcy
Oliver Darcy

Jul 21, 2026

CBS’ Eleventh-Hour Call

CBS’ Eleventh-Hour Call

The Bari Weiss-led network privately indicated it would snub Donald Trump’s primetime address last week, Status has learned, only to reverse course at the last minute and air the speech.

Oliver Darcy
Oliver Darcy

Jul 21, 2026

CBS’ Eleventh-Hour Call

Last Thursday, as Tony Dokoupil concluded anchoring the “CBS Evening News,” he delivered a programming note to the network’s viewers: Those interested in watching Donald Trump’s primetime address could stream the speech on CBS News’ streaming service.

Dokoupil did not mention airing the president’s speech on the network itself—which one would expect him to have done if that were the plan. The other two major broadcast networks, ABC and NBC, had shared their intentions much earlier in the day. It would be highly unusual for a broadcast network not to roll out its coverage plans two hours before a presidential address, especially one that had been announced three days earlier.

In any event, while the Bari Weiss-led network did not publicly disclose its coverage plans until 8 p.m., when it announced it would air the address during a primetime special anchored by Dokoupil, Status has learned that CBS News had privately…

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Oliver Darcy

Jon Passantino

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Brian Lowry

Status is the definitive nightly briefing that cuts through the noise to inform readers about what is really happening in the corridors of media power.

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