CBS Mornings is on the move. TVNewser can confirm that the Eye Network’s flagship morning show will vacate its Times Square studio later this year and return to its former studio inside the CBS Broadcast Center.
The New York Post was the first to report the news, with one insider telling the paper that cost-cutting was behind the show’s exit from its current home. “It’s all about saving money,” a source told the paper.
TVNewser has reached out to CBS News for comment, but none was received at press time.
CBS Mornings has been in its current digs since September 2021 when it rebranded itself from its previous iteration, CBS This Morning. Besides a new studio for co-hosts Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil, and Nate Burleson, that makeover also included a new theme song and a new logo.
“All CBS News morning broadcasts will now be part of the same family, with a focus on original reporting and exquisite storytelling,” then-CBS News and Stations president and co-head Neeraj Khemlani said in a statement at the time. “We’re adding a little bit of CBS Sunday Morning—every morning—on CBS Mornings.”
Even in its new home, CBS Mornings faced the same problem of finishing behind ABC News’ Good Morning America and NBC News’ Today in the morning show ratings race. It has remained in third place for much of the past year in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo. During the week of March 10, CBS Mornings attracted 1.869 million viewers in the former category and 332,000 viewers in the latter.
CBS News has also had to contend with the larger corporate moves being made by its parent company, Paramount Global. Last year, Paramount head Sherry Lansing explored a sale with multiple suitors before making a soon-to-close deal with Skydance Media, led by David Ellison. That process was accompanied by cost-cutting measures as well as several significant departures from the news network.
In July, Ingrid Ciprián-Matthews stepped down as CBS News president, replaced by Adrienne Roark, who left the network last month. On-air, meanwhile, Norah O’Donnell left the CBS Evening News anchor’s chair in January as part of a program revamp that has yet to yield consistent ratings results.
According to the Post, CBS Mornings will share a Broadcast Center studio with the CBS Evening News. A source told the paper that its former Times Square studio could potentially be rented to other productions.
