The anchors are staying. The producer is going.
Shawna Thomas, who has guided CBS News’ morning program through several major transitions since joining as executive producer in 2021, is making one of her own. The journalist, who has won plaudits for her entrepreneurial career and hard-won knowledge of Washington, will leave “CBS Mornings,” part of what is expected to be another overhaul of the program that may have it embrace some of the frillier trappings of the daypart that it has previously avoided.
CBS News on Wednesday announced that both of the current “CBS Morning” co-hosts, Gayle King and Nate Burleson, would stay with the A.M. showcase for the foreseeable future, with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski calling them “fantastic partners on the show,” while adding: “We are excited to continue to evolve CBS Mornings and can’t wait for what’s to come.” King and Burleson are likely be joined in weeks to come by a rotation of guest hosts who could hail from CBS’ own talent roster, according to a person familiar with the matter, or might just be celebrities or notables ready to hang out in the studio. The third seat at the show has been empty since Tony Dokoupil left to take anchor duties at “CBS Evening News.”
“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 said in a note to staffers Thursday. She added: “I’ve had the privilege of helping to make 10 (now 12!) hours of television each week that goes out free to people everywhere. 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.”
Thomas is “a passionate journalist, especially when it comes to reporting and understanding our country’s very dynamic political arena. We will certainly miss her reasoned voice at our morning meeting,” Cibrowski said. Jon Tower will assume executive-producer duties on an interim basis after Thomas departs. CBS News executives remain impressed with Thomas’ abilities, according to a person familiar with the matter, and are eager to find a way to continue working with her in some fashion, potentially on air.
Since King joined Charlie Rose and Erica Hill (replaced by Norah O’Donnell after a few months) on a new program, “CBS This Morning” in 2012, the CBS A.M. show has veered away from the usual sunrise stunts: cooking segments, fluffy celebrity visits and curation of social-media phenomena. Instead, the program focused more heavily on hard news and analysis, broadening out the range of topics its hosts would cover, such as business news. When a celebrity did visit, the hosts would try and engage them in deeper conversation about Hollywood trends or their current project. The concept proved less compelling following Rose’s exit in 2017 after the revelation of harassment claims that he denied.
CBS News more recently tried to tie the weekday A.M. program more closely to its “Sunday Morning” franchise, even using the weekend program’s familiar trumpet theme to call viewers to attention. The second hour of “CBS Mornings” dove into longer features after the trio of King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson dealt with the news at 7 a.m.
Some careful observers might have already noticed subtle nods to a more traditional – and lifestyle -focused — morning routine. “CBS Mornings” in late February tried to gain notice from an interview that King did with the producers from the trendy HBO drama “Heated Rivalry.” And the show has been doing segments with eliminated contestants from the 50th cycle of the long-running CBS reality show “Survivor” — a concept reminiscent of “Good Morning America,” which often celebrates competitors from ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
If anyone knows what works in morning TV, it’s Cibrowski. Though he joined CBS News after a stint running ABC’s San Francisco station KGO, he also logged time as a senior executive at ABC News, where he was among those who helped boost “Good Morning America” over NBC’s “Today” for the first time in years. Cibrowski was executive producer of the show when it flipped the morning-TV hierarchy.
“He’s just a master of all the strategy and tactics of morning TV,” says one former colleague. He’s also “very good at managing the complicated personalities of the people on the air and the people behind the scenes.” Another former colleague calls Cibrowski “a dedicated and intense morning show leader.”
People who know Cibrowski say he has great skill in weaving together a show “rundown” that mixes light and heavy, emotion with newsgathering, The executive “knows how to pick the stories and stack the stories, and pick the talent do to specific stories,” says the first former colleague.
“CBS Mornings” could use new juice.
The show is shedding viewers. For the five days ending March 27, “CBS Mornings” lured a total audience of just under 1.78 million, according to data from Nielsen. Meanwhile, NBC’s “Today” captured around 3.2 million and ABC’s “Good Morning America” lured an average of around 3.1 million. “CBS Mornings” attracted just 22% of the overall audience that watches morning-news programming on any of the three broadcast networks.
Advertisers are taking their money elsewhere. Sponsors invested approximately $131.8 million against “CBS Mornings” in 2024, according to data from Guideline, a tracker of ad spending. But in 2025, ad revenue tied to the program fell to about $119.2 million, a dip of 9.5%.
“The show needs a radical rethink,” says one former TV news executive. “It’s slow and dull.”
Morning programs increasingly try to balance softer segments with news of the day. Those that can’t, don’t. CNN in 2024 got out of the business of offering its own version of a morning program after years of trying. Now the network splits a Washington-based 6 a.m. program hosted by Audie Cornish in Washington with several hours of its “News Central” daytime news format.
People familiar with CBS News have thought Bari Weiss, the opinion journalist who was installed as editor in chief last year, was ambivalent about A.M. programming. During a town hall meeting held in January, Weiss indicated she was ceding the direction of the morning show to Cibrowski. “Tom Cibrowski is really the morning show guy,” she told CBS News staffers. “Direct all questions for the morning show to him.”
Though he achieved something remarkable with “Good Morning America,” Cibrowski is likely to face a new set of challenges. TV’s morning-news crop faces a different set of rivals that range from early-bird email newsletters to video podcasts. The tenor of the times have also created different tensions on morning-news sets, where the lives of the anchors are under constant discussion on digital venues.
Thomas, the executive producer, was well-suited for a show that chased harder news and enterprise features. She logged stints as Washington D.C. bureau chief for Vice, where one landmark segment she produced in which a reporter embedded herself among white supremacists who occupied a park in Charlottesville, Va., won a Peabody Award. She also experimented with short-form programming well ahead of the industry, working as a content-development executive at Quibi. She is also known for a long tenure working at NBC News as a producer on Capitol Hill and at the White House and as a senior producer at “Meet the Press.”
“CBS Mornings” will no doubt still feature reporting that requires someone with that background — but perhaps not as much as in the recent past.
