CBS News has undergone big changes lately, but one of its most prominent personalities is staying put. Variety reports, CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King has signed a multi-year deal to remain with the network.
“I still feel that in many ways I’m just getting started,” King said on her SiriusXM radio program Friday, Jan. 28.
The news comes as the cable and TV news business is going through major changes, with streaming becoming a priority.
King said she was impressed with the future plans of CBS News co-presidents Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon. Presumably this includes CBS News Streaming, which was just relaunched.
We’re not sure even Gayle is enough to get us to invest time into CBS News Streaming.
There have been rumors that CNN is interested in King for the primetime 9 pm spot vacated by Chris Cuomo.
“You know, there’s lots of speculation about ‘what Gayle’s gonna do, where is she gonna go…Um…’is she being courted?” The answer was yes. You know ‘she has a grandchild, does she wanna move to California?” The answer is no,” she said. “I mean, I don’t know why people thought that just because you have a grandchild now all of a sudden you just want to give up your career and go sit in California.”
Gayle is one of CBS’ best and most popular news personalities. Her no-nonsense yet compassionate interview style makes every subject fascinating and human.
Her interviews never feel like PR tours, even when they clearly are.
And if we’re being honest, CBS is pretty white. There’s not enough diversity or representation across the network. Not to mention, the recent racism and discrimination scandals in its local news stations.
We’re not saying re-signing Gayle is going to suddenly fix these issues, because that’s not her job. However, getting your most prominent Black newsperson to stay at the network certainly helps with optics and perception.
That being said, whether it’s Gayle or someone else, we really want CNN to put a Black woman in the 9 pm slot.