The “CBS Evening News” entered a new phase on Monday.

Anchor Norah O’Donnell signed off last Thursday for the final time. After more than five years and nearly 1,300 newscasts, O’Donnell told viewers, “This has been the honor of a lifetime, to anchor this legacy broadcast.”

That legacy broadcast is now moving in a different direction. O’Donnell, by her choice, announced last summer that she would leave the anchor desk shortly after the election. She is moving on to do big investigations and interviews for various CBS News properties, such as “60 Minutes” and the “Evening News.”

The new “CBS Evening News” now has a different look with co-anchors taking O’Donnell’s place. That includes John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, along with “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan, who will offer perspective and news about Washington and politics.

Dickerson told People’s Kyler Alvord, “People have the news all day in their pockets, and we’re not trying to compete with that. What we can share is the perspective that comes from the deep reporting that our correspondents do. … That’s a CBS News strength — our experienced correspondents and the people working on the show who have spent their lives trying to figure out how to make a complicated world understandable.”

DuBois told Alvord, “John and I will debrief our correspondents each night. You’ll get context and insight. It will feel like people you know describing incredible things that they just witnessed. I’m excited to give our viewers nuggets of info that they won’t get anywhere else.”

The newscast will also include reports from chief weathercaster Lonnie Quinn. That feels like a smart move, with the weather often being a top national story and drawing high interest from audiences.

On Monday, the newscast didn’t start with a long tease of all the stories coming up in the half-hour. Instead, the new format immediately jumped right in with an opening story: China’s artificial intelligence company, DeepSeek. Both DuBois and Dickerson, in the New York studio, handled the story before introducing Brennan from Washington. Brennan then gave perspective on DeepSeek, taking questions from DuBois and Dickerson, while telling viewers what it meant. In other words, more perspective along with the details of the story.

At the end of the first block, the newscast had something called “RoundUp,” which had quick summaries such as the mudslides in California, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent arrests, a memorial in Poland commemorating the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz being liberated, and then President Donald Trump’s meeting with GOP leaders. The block ended with teases to more stories that the newscast would cover later in the half hour.

Another wrinkle: During the first commercial break, the newscast had a “HEADLINES” section, almost like the kind of ticker you see on the bottom of, say, ESPN. It was exactly what the chyron suggests — just the headlines of stories, such as:

• DOJ Fires Officials on Jack Smith’s Team.
• Costco Shareholders Reject Anti-DEI measure.
• Record Cruise Ship Travel Predicted for 3rd Year.
• Dozens of Tuberculosis Cases in Kansas City.
• Small Earthquake rattles New England Coast.

Those were just a handful of many headlines.

And that was the gist of the first two blocks: stories with a little extra perspective added from the correspondents covering them. The third segment was called “Eye on America,” which was a deep dive into California families that are dealing with being underinsured following the wildfires.

The final segment was more inspirational: recognizing first responders.

In the end, the newscast didn’t try to cover everything, but of the stories it did cover, it covered extensively. CBS isn’t reinventing the wheel, but there is no question that it had a different look and feel, and there is also no question that it was interesting.

On one hand, the move to co-anchors and reimagining the newscast is a bit risky because it’s not what habit-watching TV news viewers are used to. On the other hand, the “CBS Evening News” has trailed both ABC’s “World News Tonight” and NBC’s “Nightly News” for several years.

Variety’s Brian Steinberg wrote, “O’Donnell didn’t change that, but give her this: The show last week won an average of 5.037 million viewers — a little higher than the program’s norm — amid big changes in the nation. And she’s never had her journalism questioned or a story that generated criticism of being unfair or inaccurate — despite several tough pieces that investigated sexual assault in the military. She also secured an interview with Pope Francis, not the easiest ‘get’ in the business.”

Still, it’s a bit of a risk for both the CBS “Evening News” and O’Donnell, who gives up one of the most coveted jobs in broadcast journalism.

Steinberg added, “The new format will help accomplish a goal touted for months by senior CBS and Paramount Global executives: bringing together the news teams of CBS News and the CBS local stations. The maneuver takes place as Paramount is under extreme pressure to cut millions of dollars from its operating costs. More are expected to take place once the company is acquired by Skydance Media, expected, at present, at some point later this year. Viewers of the new ‘Evening News’ probably won’t see Dickerson and DuBois out in the field all that much, a duty that will increasingly be handled by a correspondent who covers the area in which an important news story breaks.”

Wall Street Journal pushes back again

The Wall Street Journal editorial board typically leans to the right, but its members are not rubber-stamping all of Donald Trump’s decisions. Last week, the board criticized Trump for his pardon of Jan. 6 insurrectionists who attacked law enforcement, writing, “What happened that day is a stain on Mr. Trump’s legacy. By setting free the cop beaters, the President adds another.”

Then late Sunday, the board published an editorial questioning Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary. Kennedy’s confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin on Wednesday when he appears before the Senate Finance Committee.

The Journal board wrote, “Most troubling is his long record of anti-vaccine advocacy. In the past he has claimed that the measles vaccine causes autism despite reams of studies that have found no causative link, and that the polio vaccine might have killed many more than the actual virus.”

The board notes that Kennedy has “tried to soften his vaccine skepticism since being nominated, and he now says he won’t take away anyone’s vaccines.” But as the subhead in the column reads: “He’s made millions from referring clients to trial lawyers, and he advocates mass tort litigation that would ruin the vaccine industry.”

The board also writes, “Senators would be wise to believe RFK Jr.’s career of spreading falsehoods rather than his confirmation conversions.”

Over the top

Clearly Fox News is over the moon that Donald Trump is back in the White House. How much so? They are now talking about things such as putting Trump on Mount Rushmore, as well as American currency.

As Mediaite’s Isaac Schorr noted, it was all up for discussion on Monday’s “Outnumbered” on Fox News.

Fox contributor and Fox radio host Jason Chaffetz said, “Hey, if there’s room up there I think it’d be great. I think what Donald Trump has done — and is in the process of doing — is transforming the United States of America and putting America first. And I think America loves it, and I think there’s a great case for it.”

Fox News host and former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “Yeah, I’m fascinated by this because that would be some sweet irony after President Joe Biden stopped the fireworks display from Mount Rushmore. So if you did like the 250th anniversary of the country at Mount Rushmore with President Trump’s face, it would be epic. There’s also a petition now in Congress to change Dulles airport’s name to Donald Trump International Airport so you have Trump and you have Reagan in D.C. And wouldn’t that be something special for the swamp?”

Something special for the swamp? So now we’re adding faces to iconic landmarks and changing the name of airports just to stick it to people you don’t like or don’t share your political view?

That’s not all. Fox News co-host Emily Compagno said, “I hate that we chiseled humans’ faces into the mountains. So for me, I would be all for putting President Trump’s face on currency, right?”

The big game

One of the official balls for the upcoming Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos)

The Super Bowl is set. The two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 9 in New Orleans. Fox has this year’s game with all eyes (and ears) on analyst Tom Brady, who is wrapping his first year of what has been a mixed-bag rookie season behind the microphone.

Brady has improved game-by-game and had his best performance in Sunday’s NFC Championship game. He has become looser, more critical when need be, and even self-deprecating. When the Fox broadcast showed Nick Foles, who was the quarterback when the Eagles beat Brady’s New England Patriots in 2018, Brady was teased by partner Kevin Burkhardt.

“Nick Foles in the building — Super Bowl MVP,” Burkhardt said. “Who did he play in that game? Do you know who he played in that game?”

Brady said, “Nick, I don’t hate you! I’m just jealous of you.”

As far as the matchup, there are a lot of people who are tired of seeing the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. This is their third trip in a row and their fifth in the past six years. Would most of the nation have preferred the Buffalo Bills, who lost to the Chiefs in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game? Probably. But the Chiefs do have the Taylor Swift factor, which will help drive audiences. Really, Fox would’ve been happy with either Kansas City or Buffalo from the AFC.

Philadelphia is a good team for Fox to have in the Super Bowl, even though Chiefs-Eagles is a rematch of two seasons ago.

The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch writes, “The Philadelphia media market is the No. 4 largest media market by households in the U.S., as ranked by Nielsen as of 2025, and the Eagles are always a strong television draw. The NFC Championship was the key game as far as Super Bowl viewership was concerned.”

Check out Deitsch’s column for more thoughts about the NFL playoff weekend.

Media tidbits

• In his Status newsletter Monday night, Oliver Darcy reported that Jim Acosta is “expected to exit” CNN. The anchor recently was not included in the network’s latest reshuffled lineup and was, reportedly, going to be asked to move to the graveyard shift. More to come this week on this story.
• The New York Times’ Cade Metz with “What to Know About DeepSeek and How It Is Upending A.I.”
• CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan and Katelyn Polantz with “Trump pardoned the January 6 convicts. Now his DOJ is wiping evidence of rioters’ crimes from the internet.”
• A podcast from The Washington Post opinion section, it’s Drew Goins, Molly Roberts and Philip Bump with “Are we past peak social media?”
• The latest from The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum: “Europe’s Elon Musk Problem.”
• Semafor’s Max Tani with “Media traffic shows signs of another Trump bump.”
• Also from Max Tani: “LA Times owner Soon-Shiong finds his MAGA whisperer.”
• NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt has been named political editor of The Hill. Stirewalt, formerly the political editor at Fox News, will continue in his role at NewsNation. Here’s more from The Hill.
• This story is pretty wild: Nieman Lab’s Andrew Deck with “Inside a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting “small town America.”
• Emily Ramshaw — CEO and co-founder of The 19th — with “The 19th turns five: Half a decade of critical journalism and a bold vision for the future.”

Hot type

• GQ with “50 ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Members Reveal Their Favorite ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Members.”
• Finally, be sure to check out the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast.” My guest is Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network. We talk extensively about Meta’s decision to end its fact-checking program, and where fact-checking goes from here.

More resources for journalists

• Gain a deeper understanding of Polarization in America and Christian Nationalism. Enroll now.
• Elevate your editing expertise with the Poynter ACES Advanced Certificate. Enroll now.
• The 2025 Poynter Journalism Prizes contest is open for entries. The early bird deadline is Jan. 31. Submit your entry today.
• Learn how to cover critical issues surrounding child protection and the foster care system. Apply by Feb. 14.

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