'Grim picture' for Bari Weiss as CBS News ratings continue to 'crumble': report

Tom Boggioni
July 2, 2026 

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CBS News head Bari Weiss at a conference in Idaho in July. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

The numbers don't lie—and they're devastating for CBS News and embattled division head Bari Weiss.

According to a report from media watchdog Status, despite CBS News touting a modest 1 percent year-over-year gain for Tony Dokoupil's "CBS Evening News" in the second quarter, a closer examination reveals a "grim picture" under Weiss. The broadcast averaged just 3.9 million viewers in Q2, according to Nielsen—marking its second-worst second quarter on record and remaining stuck below the "critical" 4 million viewer threshold.

And things are getting worse, not better, wrote Natalie Korach of Status, because last month "CBS Evening News" hit its lowest-rated June of the entire 21st century in total viewers.

Meanwhile, "CBS Mornings" cratered even harder, plummeting to its lowest-rated month in the program's entire history with fewer than 1.7 million total viewers.

The morning show's collapse is particularly stark in the key 25-54 age demographic—the metric advertisers care most about. In June, "CBS Mornings" averaged just 269,000 viewers in that demo, marking the sixth consecutive month the program has failed to top 300,000 viewers.

The bad news for Weiss comes as CBS owner Paramount's pending $111 billion acquisition of CNN's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery will be approved, which has CNN employees on edge and looking for a way out over fears she may take over.