CBS News staff reacts to ‘huge loss’ as ‘Evening News’ anchor John Dickerson departs

Less than a year after taking over the anchor seat at CBS Evening News, John Dickerson revealed Monday that he was not only leaving the weeknight news broadcast within the next two months but that his time at the Tiffany Network was coming to an end after 16 years.

Dickerson’s departure comes as Bari Weiss, the network’s new “anti-woke” editor-in-chief, has been openly looking to revamp CBS News’ perennially third-place evening program – which has seen her courting Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier and CNN mainstay Anderson Cooper to take over the telecast.

His looming exit also represents the first high-profile talent exit from the network since media mogul David Ellison became parent company Paramount’s chairman following this past summer’s politically fraught $8 billion merger with Skydance. Weeks before the Trump administration approved the deal, Paramount paid Donald Trump $16 million to settle a “meritless” lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.

“He’s a huge, huge loss,” one CBS News senior staffer told The Independent, while another network employee said it felt like the network “wanted him to fail.”

Representatives for CBS News and Dickerson did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, other CBS News sources expressed their “disappointment” at Dickerson’s departure from the network after a lengthy career that also included hosting CBS News’ flagship morning program and Sunday political talk show. “He is a true journalist,” one network reporter said.

Dickerson’s exit from the network was first announced internally during Monday’s 10 a.m. editorial morning news call, prompting the longtime CBS anchor to quickly take to his social media to publicly reveal that he was stepping away.

“At the end of this year, I will leave CBS, 16 years after I sat in as Face the Nation anchor for the first time,” he wrote on Instagram. “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. I will miss you.”

In a separate note, CBS News President Tom Cibrowski said that Dickerson would continue to host CBS Evening News until the holidays, adding that the veteran anchor “epitomizes the very best of journalism” and that there will be “plenty of time to thank him for his work here and honor his contributions to our success.” Cibrowski also framed the decision as Dickerson’s, saying that he “had decided” to step away from the network.

It was just a year ago that Dickerson was tapped to replace Norah O’Donnell on CBS Evening News, as the company decided to go with a two-man anchor team featuring Dickerson and reporter Maurice DuBois. The shake-up not only saw O’Donnell step down as the face of the program, but the network also brought the show back to New York City.

The experiment, which network insiders initially said they were “excited and fearful” over as “nothing was really working” under O’Donnell’s leadership, has largely been seen as unsuccessful so far. The show’s ratings have only continued to fall, and the weeknight telecast has fallen further behind its broadcast counterparts.

While staffers who spoke with The Independent about Dickerson’s departure said they were “not surprised,” especially amid the new corporate ownership and the installation of Weiss as the newsroom’s editorial leader, they still expressed sadness over his exit and felt the network was worse off with him leaving.

“He’s an excellent journalist, good human being, and someone you want in a newsroom,” the network senior staffer said, adding that the combination of Weiss’ arrival and the efforts to once again reshape the evening news broadcast “was probably too much for him.”

Adding that Dickerson has held “nearly every marquee job” at the network during his tenure, the senior staffer remarked that the anchor has had “quite the journey” at CBS News. Besides CBS Evening News, Dickerson also served as the lead anchor of Face the Nation and CBS Mornings, and reported for the network’s legendary newsmagazine, 60 Minutes.

“Still, it is a huge, huge loss” for the newsroom, the staffer remarked.

Commending Dickerson as a “true journalist,” a network reporter noted that there was a “lot of disappointment” among the news staff over the anchor’s exit. Meanwhile, a longtime journalist at the network praised Dickerson’s reporting while suggesting he shouldn’t shoulder the bulk of the blame for the evening broadcast’s continued soft ratings.

“Very sad and disappointed. He knew how to ask solid questions. And get interesting people to speak. This is a huge loss for CBS,” the source said.

Insisting that Dickerson wasn’t given enough corporate support to succeed during his short tenure at CBS Evening News, the source added: “It’s like they wanted him to fail.” When Dickerson first replaced O’Donnell, staffers were “super excited” that the show could echo the editorial sensibilities of 60 Minutes and past iterations of the evening broadcast.

While Dickerson is the first high-profile on-air talent to leave during the Ellison/Weiss era, his announced departure comes less than two weeks after the news division’s head of standards turned in her resignation.

In her announcement to staff this month, Claudia Milne – whose father was the CBS News London Bureau editor for three decades – urged the network’s journalists to “keep asking those tough questions” and “to hold the powerful to account.” Much like Milne, Dickerson also has a familial legacy at the network, as his mother was CBS News’ first female correspondent.

Prior to Paramount closing its deal with Ellison’s Skydance Media, Dickerson took a subtle on-air swipe at his then-corporate bosses for settling with Trump and paying him millions of dollars to make the 60 Minutes lawsuit go away.

“Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust?” Dickerson pondered while delivering the news about the settlement. He also brought up the merger’s potential role in the agreement with Trump.

“That deal needs Trump administration approval,” he concluded. “The corporation said the settlement of the Trump lawsuit is completely separate from and unrelated to the merger. In the end, Paramount decided to settle a suit it said is without basis in law and fact and an affront to the First Amendment.”

Since Ellison’s takeover of Paramount in August, CBS News has been in the midst of a restructuring that has sparked criticism that the 42-year-old executive – whose father is mega-billionaire and close Trump ally Larry Ellison – is shifting the network’s coverage to the right to appeal to the president.

Besides hiring the “radically centrist” contrarian Weiss and purchasing her “heterodox” digital outlet The Free Press, Ellison has installed a former Trump appointee as an ombudsman to root out “complaints of bias” at CBS News and revamped Face the Nation’s editing rules following complaints from the White House.

Meanwhile, just a year after the evening broadcast underwent a facelift, Weiss has looked to make a splash early in her tenure by potentially bringing in a big name to take over CBS Evening News.

According to sources familiar with the situation, Weiss has mentioned that she would like to bring in Baier – though it would seem highly unlikely that the Fox News star would decamp from the conservative cable giant. Not only is Baier making $14 million a year, but he is locked into a contract until 2028 – meaning that Fox owners Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch would have to let him out of his deal so he can depart for a network rival.

The chatter around Baier, however, has sparked additional concern among staff about the editorial direction that Ellison and Weiss have in mind for the network. At the same time, though, Weiss has floated other names to host the nightly news show that wouldn’t be seen as conservative-leaning.

Cooper, who also serves as a special correspondent for 60 Minutes, is apparently one target high on Weiss’ list. However, much like Baier, the CNN anchor is locked into a high-dollar contract. Sources have also said that he’s “not interested.” Of course, with Ellison eyeing a Trump-approved takeover of CNN’s corporate parent Warner Bros. Discovery, it is also possible that CBS News and CNN could soon be part of a massive news operation managed by Weiss.

Additionally, Weiss is also considering bringing back O’Donnell – who has been lobbying hard for the role behind the scenes – to anchor the evening program. CBS Mornings co-anchor Tony Dokoupil, whom The Free Press fiercely defended after the network’s news leaders reprimanded him last year for his combative interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates over Gaza, is also in the mix.

Amid all the ongoing changes at the network, the newsroom is also preparing for looming layoffs, as Ellison has vowed to trim $2 billion from Paramount’s ledger — likely meaning up to ten percent of the CBS News staff will be cut. Those layoffs are expected to be announced this week.