A day after CBS announced that it was retaining one of its most popular news personalities for its morning show, the network announced that the show’s top producer will be leaving the program. The departure ends a five-year tenure and comes as CBS News continues to shake up its programming.
Thomas leaving ‘CBS Mornings’ and possibly CBS News
Variety reported Thursday that CBS Mornings executive producer Shawna Thomas will be leaving her role, which she has held since 2021. Thomas broke the news to colleagues in a note: “For five years, I’ve tried to make this show something you all want to watch. Want to be a part of. Want to learn from,” Thomas reflected fondly on her time with the program. “I’ve had the privilege of helping to make 10 (now 12!) hours of television each week that goes out free to people everywhere,” she wrote. “I’ve taken that responsibility of trying to inform, educate, entertain and make people care about the world around them very seriously and I know the people here do, too.”
It’s currently unclear what the departure from CBS Mornings will mean for Thomas’s larger future with CBS. Variety reported that the network may look for other opportunities to work with Thomas, a well-respected veteran journalist and producer, such as having her appear as a contributor. TheWrap, however, characterizes her departure as not only leaving CBS Mornings but CBS News altogether. “This isn’t THE GREAT GOODBYE NOTE,” The Wrap reported Thomas writing in her Thursday note to CBS staff, “But you should know I’ve been thinking about this for a while and, frankly, I’m tired y’all.” She will be departing CBS News at the end of March, according to a source in the network.
Shakeups for morning show, CBS News and Paramount Skydance
The departure of Thomas from CBS Mornings and possibly from CBS News comes amid a period of flux for the show and the network, as well as its parent company Paramount Skydance. Thomas announced her decision one day after Gayle King, who has been a host of the program since 2012, announced she would be returning under a new contract with CBS, ending months of speculation over the popular host’s future with the network. CBS also indicated that co-host Nate Burleson would remain on at CBS Mornings as well. It is unclear whether the show will fill the third cohost slot that has remained open since Tony Dokoupil was moved to anchor CBS Evening News.
Dokoupil’s move has been controversial and part of what critics see as a push by CBS to move its news coverage in a more conservative direction. This Republican-friendly campaign, including the appointment of CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, has been interpreted as a move by parent company Paramount to curry the favor of the Trump administration, which approved a merger between Paramount and Skydance and is now set to evaluate a new merger with rival Warner Bros. Discovery. It is unclear how CBS Mornings will be impacted by this larger agenda. In the short run, the focus for CBS seems to be restoring ratings for its morning show, which currently lags behind rival programs on NBC and ABC. Jon Tower will step in to lead CBS Mornings for now; a long-term replacement has not been announced.
Whoever ultimately ends up replacing Thomas will have their work cut out for them: having to navigate a competitive morning show environment, a news division moving in a controversial ideological direction, and a corporate parent pursuing yet another corporate merger. That replacement will have to decide whether to continue the tradition of serious journalism that CBS Mornings pursued under Thomas or to pivot in a different direction.