Norah O'Donnell Returns to "CBS Mornings" as Bari Weiss-Era Overhaul Reaches the Anchor Desk

CBS News announced Thursday that Norah O'Donnell is returning to "CBS Mornings" as a permanent co-host, rejoining Gayle King and Nate Burleson starting Tuesday, Sept. 8, more than seven years after she left the program to anchor the "CBS Evening News." The move fills the third chair at the anchor desk that Tony Dokoupil vacated in January, when he was named anchor of the "CBS Evening News" in a reshuffling of the network's flagship broadcasts.

The official announcement, posted to CBS News' own site, quoted "CBS Mornings" senior producer Jon Tower calling the King-O'Donnell pairing "one of the most memorable partnerships in the history of the morning news." O'Donnell co-hosted the broadcast, then titled "CBS This Morning," alongside King for seven years before departing in 2019 to become managing editor and anchor of the evening news. In the years since, she has interviewed every living U.S. president, covered eight presidential elections, and in 2024 conducted the first American television interview with Pope Francis. She will keep her title as a "60 Minutes" correspondent and continue hosting the network's "Healthful" podcast alongside the new morning role.

A Program Under Pressure

The reshuffle lands at a fraught moment for "CBS Mornings." According to Nielsen figures compiled by Adweek's TVNewser, the CBS broadcast drew 1.754 million total viewers and 284,000 adults age 25 to 54 in the second quarter of 2026, trailing NBC's "Today" (3.021 million total viewers) and ABC's "Good Morning America" (2.843 million). CBS Mornings was the only one of the three programs to decline year over year in both measures, falling 9 percent in total viewers and 10 percent in the demographic advertisers prize most, even as "Today" grew 20 percent and "GMA" gained 7 percent over the same span. Trade coverage has described O'Donnell's arrival as the opening move in a broader planned redesign of the broadcast, with executives said to be pushing for a faster pace and more live interviews once she is in place.

How CBS News Got Here

The show's ratings slide has unfolded alongside a wholesale remaking of CBS News since Paramount Skydance completed its takeover of the network last year. Paramount acquired the opinion site The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News, reporting directly to chief executive David Ellison, with a mandate to reposition the division's coverage. Weiss's tenure has been marked by open conflict inside the news division. In June, CBS fired longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley, a 37-year veteran of the network, a day after he told colleagues in a staff meeting that "60 Minutes has lost its DNA under new management" and questioned the qualifications of newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who had objected to the postponement of a segment on the Trump administration's deportation policy, also left the broadcast this year. The anchor swap that sent Dokoupil to evenings and reopened a seat for O'Donnell in the mornings is the latest personnel move to originate from Weiss's office.

Reported Friction, a Disputed Account

O'Donnell's return had been rumored for weeks before Thursday's announcement. Multiple outlets, including the Daily Beast, reported in August that King was unhappy at the prospect of sharing the desk with her former co-host again, citing an unnamed source close to King who said "she does not want Norah to return to the show" and described the pair as "cordial colleagues bordering on frenemies." CBS representatives have since pushed back on that characterization, telling reporters that King was consulted on the decision and that the two anchors "respect each other's work."

"They have a friendship and chemistry that extends beyond the studio. They know each other, respect each other, and — maybe most importantly — genuinely enjoy each other," Tower wrote in the internal announcement shared with staff.

King and O'Donnell first shared the "CBS This Morning" desk in 2012, when the broadcast was relaunched under a hard-news format built around long-form interviews, and stayed paired until O'Donnell's 2019 exit to the evening broadcast. That earlier run helped lift the program out of last place for stretches of its run, a benchmark CBS is evidently hoping to repeat. Burleson, a former NFL wide receiver who joined the show as a football analyst before moving to the anchor desk in 2022, remains in place and worked alongside Dokoupil until his promotion this year.

• Sept. 8: O'Donnell's first broadcast back on "CBS Mornings," alongside King and Burleson
• January 2026: Tony Dokoupil promoted from "CBS Mornings" to anchor the "CBS Evening News"
• June 2026: "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley fired following a public clash with new management
• Q2 2026: CBS Mornings' total viewership fell 9 percent year over year, the only major morning show to decline

What Happens Next

CBS has not said who, if anyone, will assume O'Donnell's prior duties as a floating correspondent and fill-in anchor, and executives have not detailed how quickly changes to the broadcast's format and pacing will roll out beyond the anchor switch itself. The network's own announcement framed the move chiefly in terms of on-air chemistry rather than strategy, but the timing, arriving five months after Weiss's installation and three months after Pelley's ouster, places it squarely inside the larger effort to stabilize a news division that has shed veteran talent over the past year. Nielsen's next ratings period, covering the weeks after O'Donnell's Sept. 8 debut, will offer the first indication of whether the pairing narrows the gap with "Today" and "Good Morning America" or whether CBS Mornings' third-place standing persists into the fall.