CBS to “Evening News” staff: Good night, and good luck.
The network has begun offering buyouts to “Evening News” staffers as it looks to revamp the show under new anchor Tony Dokoupil, The Post has learned.
CBS News emailed staffers Wednesday: “We are offering an extraordinary chance to leave CBS News with an enhanced separation payment.”
The missive obtained by The Post cited Weiss’ Tuesday townhall meeting with staff, in which she shared her vision for the beleaguered news division to expand beyond linear TV into digital, live events, podcasts and other areas.
“At yesterday’s All-Hands, Bari charted a course for CBS News that’s very different from the one we’re on now,” stated the unsigned email from HR.
“The Evening News has a new host and a new direction, and there will be more change coming. We hope you are excited about this vision, but we understand that some of you may not be, and we want to provide support.”
The email said the network is “extending a one-time voluntary buyout program to all eligible ‘CBS Evening News’ non-union staff employees,” noting that interested employees had until Feb. 2 to accept.
Once accepted, the company will provide the financial terms of the buyout offer to consider by 8pm ET on Feb. 4. Employees have until Feb. 9 at 8 pm ET to accept the offer and resign, according to the letter.
CBS declined to comment on how many people were offered a buyout, but a source with knowledge of the matter said most staffers who work on the show got the email. Unionized workers, who did not get the offer, are mostly writers and technical staffers.
“Evening News” executive producer Kim Harvey sent a separate memo about the buyout offer but was reluctant to do so, Variety reported. More buyout offers — and job cuts — are expected as Weiss puts her mark on the last-place news network.
After drawing protest from some current and former CBS News staff for her efforts to shake up the network, Weiss has told employees they are free to leave if they don’t agree with her vision.
“It’s a free country, and I completely respect if you decide I’m not the right leader for you, or this isn’t the right place at the right time,” she said at the Tuesday townhall.
Weiss noted that she wants to invest in more “revelatory journalism” and emphasize “investigative scoops” that will live on the networks digital platforms, and be filtered on to its programs.
She also added 19 new contributors to the fold, including conservative historian Niall Ferguson, podcaster Andrew Huberman and former Trump chief of staff HR McMaster.
The changes come as “Evening News” enters its third week under Dokoupil, who took over the anchor chair after Weiss ousted co-anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson.
“CBS Evening News” got off to a bumpy start in its first two weeks, with Dokoupil making a teleprompter gaffe during his inaugural broadcast. A script Dokoupil was reading from did not match the story that Harvey and her team flashed on the screen.
The anchor briefly called out the control room and “Kim” — referring to Harvey — on air for the screw-up, before the correct story was flashed on the screen.
Other moments that have come under scrutiny include Dokoupil’s editorializing of Venezuela news coverage and choking up while reminiscing about his Florida childhood.
The on-air emotion was ridiculed by Megyn Kelly for what she called unprofessional “sobbing” on air. She accused the network of pandering to viewers.
During the first two weeks of his show, Dokoupil drew just under 4.2 million total viewers. But in his third week — after his on-the-road broadcasts were put to rest and he resumed took the anchor seat in New York — he pulled in an average of 4.9 million total viewers.
That’s an improvement over DuBois and Dickerson, whose show saw ratings sink below 4 million in the last few weeks of their run.
Dokoupil is still far behind the evening front runner, “ABC Nightly News with David Muir,” which reeled in 9 million total viewers the week of Jan. 19. NBC’s “Nightly News with Tom Llamas” grabbed 6.9 million viewers.
