CBS News names Norah O’Donnell as lead anchor
NEW YORK » Like any family reunion, the gathering inside CBS News on Monday had joys and tensions alike.
Veterans like Bob Schieffer looked on as the news division’s first female president, Susan Zirinsky, stepped onto a makeshift stage for an announcement that would signal a new era for the network. Gayle King would be the centerpiece of “CBS This Morning.” Norah O’Donnell was the next anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” only the second woman to hold that role.
Zirinsky pitched the changes as a fresh start after a painful period for the House of Cronkite, whose hidebound culture had been rocked by declining ratings and workplace misconduct scandals involving Jeff Fager, the longtime leader of “60 Minutes,” and Charlie Rose, the former co-anchor of “CBS This Morning.”
As part of the ceremony, Zirinsky presented O’Donnell with a gift: the Hermes Rocket manual typewriter Zirinsky used when she worked at the network’s Washington bureau.
Absent from the scene was Jeff Glor, the current “CBS Evening News” anchor, whose 18-month tenure will soon end. The show’s ratings are lower than they were when he started. As Zirinsky addressed her staff, Glor was flying back from a weekend shoot at the Grand Canyon.
Zirinsky had delivered the bad news to Glor in a private meeting after his Friday newscast, where she suggested alternative jobs; their conversation was inconclusive, according to two people.
In a statement, the network said merely that “We are discussing opportunities.” Glor briefly acknowledged the shake-up at the end of his newscast Monday evening. “I have family, friends and in the future, far more to share with all of you,” he said. “It’ll be great, I promise.”
On air earlier in the day, O’Donnell, who joined “CBS This Morning” in 2012, exulted in her promotion. After King took a moment to praise Zirinsky as “a badass in the building,” the two anchors could not quite bring themselves to ignore the tumult that had preceded the morning announcements.
“We’ve had a lot of bad press coming from inside the building,” King told viewers, many of whom were most likely unaware of the tabloid gossip items on backstage issues that had sprung up during Zirinsky’s monthslong selection process.
“I have no beef with you; you have no beef with me,” King told O’Donnell, who in turn called King “my work BFF.”