Overview
- Norah O'Donnell made her on-air return to CBS Mornings as the permanent third co-host on Tuesday, Sept. 8, joining Gayle King and Nate Burleson.
- O'Donnell fills the seat vacated by Tony Dokoupil after he left the morning show last December to anchor the evening newscast.
- Network executives have framed the hire as a ratings play after a Nielsen report showed total viewers fell about 9 percent year over year to roughly 1.7 million and the 25–54 demo dropped more sharply.
- O'Donnell will continue as a full-time 60 Minutes correspondent and host the Healthful podcast, and she publicly pushed back at critics who linked her return to editorial changes under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss by calling some comments "so silly."
- The move comes during wider change at CBS News after the Paramount-Skydance deal and Weiss's appointment, which multiple reports say has led to staff departures and heightened scrutiny of programming and leadership.