Some things don't work out. Take PARADISE. Season one was tight and focused and really delivered. But season two meandered and was all over the place, introducing too many new characters and giving the impression that they had the plot for two episodes and decided to stretch it out into eight episodes. Everything was a distraction and nothing really mattered after the first episode until the eighth episode.
Marking time, that's all it seemed PARADISE was doing.
It's what some CBS NEWS friends believe David Ellison's doing.
Not a week goes by since the family friend of Donald Chump took over CBS in the merger between SKYDANCE and PARAMOUNT+ that CBS NEWS doesn't suffer. Sometimes it's because the 'ombudsperson' Bari Weiss has mutilated or killed another report because it would have embarrassed the White House. Last week,
Bari Weiss “meddled” in an Israel-related story on a new front at CBS News: CBS Sunday Morning.
The MAGA-curious editor-in-chief involved herself in an April 5 story about Israeli archeological digs in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory that Israel has been occupying for 69 years, Zeteo reported on Wednesday. Four sources told the outlet that Weiss made edits and script changes shortly before the report went to air.
“Oh yeah, she definitely meddled,” a senior CBS News staffer said of the anti-woke opinion journalist, who had no prior television broadcasting experience before being named head of the newsroom.
A network insider added that Weiss, who has described herself as a “Zionist fanatic,” had “never jumped in editorially on a Sunday Morning story until this one.”
The Sunday Morning report had been in the works before Weiss took over as editor-in-chief last October.
A CBS reporter weighed in that “this piece is the first time she’s pulled like a CECOT on the show,” referring to Weiss’ last-minute delay of a 60 Minutes report on the notorious prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration sent deportees.
Bari's other problem is Tony Dokoupil, the new anchor of THE CBS EVENING NEWS. Each week, Bari and Tony manage to run more viewers away. As April drew to a close, Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) noted:
CBS Evening News is experiencing a catastrophic collapse in viewership under Bari Weiss's leadership and veteran television executives are sounding the alarm that the controversial Free Press founder's editorial direction — marked by flagrant Trump support delivered by handpicked anchor Tony Dokoupil — is driving longtime viewers away in unprecedented numbers.
According to media watchdog Status, the damage is undeniable and accelerating.
The numbers are disastrous, writes Oliver Darcy, founder of Status. Nielsen data obtained by the media watchdog demonstrates that during the week beginning April 20, CBS Evening News hit its lowest viewership since Dokoupil took over the broadcast. The program averaged just 3.7 million viewers — "slipping below the once-unthinkable" 4 million threshold. In the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, the show averaged only 467,000 viewers.
And last week
Tony Dokoupil’s ratings crisis at CBS Evening News is spiraling as viewer figures hit free-fall mode.
Dokoupil became the de facto face of the new regime when MAGA-friendly Bari Weiss was installed as the boss of CBS News, despite having no broadcast experience. She promoted Dokoupil from CBS Mornings to the prime-time slot.
Christiane Amanpour noted her concerns publicly last week. And non-publicly, in conversations with us, many other CBS NEWS employees are growing increasingly bothered. However, one producer says that there may be a welcome change around the corner.
Before we get to that, let's note the criticism is largely around what Bari interferes with and the ratings. Outside the network, that is the focus.
But April 25th, feeling we needed to do a piece for April, we sat down to catch CIA in its repeat, Saturday broadcast, while we looked through things people had sent us about their own shows. And we were half paying attention to CIA when they had to break in with live coverage.
It was the White House Correspondents' Dinner and far from the party a shooter had shown up and been tackled to the ground.
But that's not what we got. Tony was present. And he had Bari whispering in his ear and egging him on. The anchor of Saturday's EVENING NEWS was on camera and tossed to him.
And he spoke with the sound going in and out.
She had to toss to another and fortunately CBS NEWS had two others present at the dinner who could comment.
Then Bari was adamant that the news 'star' Tony be brought back on. And he was.
And, yet again, his cell phone cut in and out. Was it his carrier? They tried to make excuses but it hadn't happened like that for the other two news members.
The third or fourth time they tried tossing to Tony, he managed to explain that the shooter had been shot and was dead.
Really? We immediately went to THE NEW YORK TIMES website to see what they were saying.
Guess what?
They weren't saying the shooter was dead. Nor were they saying the shooter had been shot.
This was a live, breaking news moment and Tony demonstrated yet again that he wasn't up for the job promotion he'd been awarded.
He didn't have the brains to swap phones with one of the two CBS NEWS staff members whose phone were working and he didn't have the brains to nail down the facts before going on air. He didn't even do a correction. The news break ended before they could do that.
So the problem isn't just that Tony's a MAGA idiot, it's that he can't even get the facts right during a live, breaking news event.
Hope? YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS is airing on AMAZON PRIME, season two. While PARADISE became an embarrassment in season two, YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS has gotten richer and deeper in season two. Things can improve, even when, like YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS, they were already solid in season one.
And hope is what some CBS friends are holding out for.
Are they deluding themselves?
Maybe.
But the rumors are that Bari Weiss will soon be let go. It'll happen after PARAMOUNT+-SKYDANCE absorbs WARNER BROS. They need Chump on their side for that. But it that merger does go through, shortly after, a few are swearing that Bari Weiss will be let go.
She doesn't know what she's doing and her actions have hugely harmed CBS NEWS' reputation and its ratings. They're confident her time is limited.
