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A few weeks before the announcement in the wee hours of July 1 that Paramount Global and CBS were settling a widely derided lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against “60 Minutes” for $16 million, George Clooney took his final bow on Broadway as Edward R. Murrow, the famed CBS journalist he portrayed in “Good Night, and Good Luck.” The sold-out play chronicles the conflict between Murrow and the red-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy and underscores the esteemed position that CBS News has long held in broadcast journalism. From Walter Cronkite’s reporting on the Vietnam War to publishing the first photos of the abuses by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib, CBS News has a proud history of public service when it comes to checking government wrongdoing.

The crown jewel in the CBS News lineup is “60 Minutes,” the forum for Mike Wallace’s interview with tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and interviews with...

Bill Moyers, the onetime White House Press Secretary and newspaper publisher who spent four decades as a respected broadcast journalist and documentarian for PBS and CBS, died Thursday. He was 91.

Moyers died at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York after a long illness, his son William told the Associated Press.

Moyers hosted, wrote for and/or produced PBS programs like Bill Moyers’ Journal, Moyers & Company, A World of Ideas, Frontline, Now With Bill Moyers, Creativity With Bill Moyers and A Walk Through the 20th Century in stretches from 1971 through 2010, winning two Peabody Awards, three Humanitas Prizes and four Primetime Emmys along the way.

An eloquent speaker with a soft Texas twang, he was a skillful longform interviewer who confronted social and political issues with incisive, folksy exploration. He was not afraid to state his point of view and supported liberal causes and organizations, including Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting and Take Back America.

“Tell me everything,” Barbara Walters used to urge her TV guests. She believed she could coax the truth out of anyone, whether revered or disgraced, and so did her viewers.

Her confidence would be challenged today when every fragment of news, even neighborhood trivia, disappears in a blur of distrust. Since viewers no longer believe what they hear, she’d wonder, might her interviewees become too constrained about what they say?

President Trump distrusts the news media so intensely he limits his announcements to his website, even when they’re nakedly bogus (“lasting disarmament”?) .

If that revered truth-teller Walter Cronkite were alive today it’s doubtful whether even he could cast a clear focus on Gaza or Tehran, on Zelenskyy or Netanyahu. Frustrated, he might even unleash AI on Ice just to see what emerges.

Media reporting on immigration purges is so distrusted that entire new layers of fact-finders have...

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, content creator, lawyer, and TikTok journalist Aaron Parnas sat with one of his closest friends, Sam Schmir, in Parnas’s living room. Until January, Schmir did digital strategy at the White House, and had texted earlier that it was a “slow news day” — a seemingly impossible thing during the Trump 2.0 administration. Then, he texted: “I think we have something.”

Schmir watches as Parnas films a TikTok about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement getting customer’s information from Expedia and Booking.com. Previously, the private...

Rick Moranis was already a celebrated comedic actor when he made his big-screen debut in 1983's "Strange Brew." After getting his start as a disc jockey in Toronto during the 1970s, he exhibited a gift for improv comedy, which prompted his pal Dave Thomas to ask him to join the cast of the cult-favorite sketch show "Sctv." Moranis was a perfect fit. Not only did he strike up a natural, uproarious chemistry with Thomas in their "Great White North" skits, he proved to be a devastatingly hilarious impressionist. His Woody Allen in the note-perfect parody "Play It Again, Bob" (opposite Thomas as Bob Hope) was spot-on, as was his David Brinkley (particularly when he sparred with Thomas' Walter Cronkite on "Point Counterpoint"). His original characters were amazing as well, with DJ Gerry Todd, a "video technology" enthusiast, becoming one of the show's most reliably funny kooks.

Though "Strange Brew" initially...

With an anti-eco-thriller, an anti-buddy-road-movie and a couple of anti-Westerns under her belt, Kelly Reichardt may never have met a genre she couldn’t meticulously deconstruct. But rarely has she done so with such offbeat wit and bluesy wisdom as with anti-heist movie “The Mastermind,” a canny rejoinder to the glamorous high drama of the traditional robbery-gone-wrong plot, in which an extraordinary act gradually comes undone when exposed to nothing more malign than the everyday forces of ordinary life, and the fatal flaws of an ordinary man. Very possibly her most accessible and enjoyable film to date, still it remains an unmistakably Reichardtian investigation into the fabric of ordinariness and what happens when it frays.

It is 1970 in suburban Massachusetts where it’s forever windbreaker weather, and the Mooney family are taking a trip to the Framingham Art Museum. Aside from father Jb (Josh O’Connor) staring rather too intently at some Arthur Dove abstract paintings,...

Expect new headlines soon out of “CBS Evening News.”

After being overhauled in major fashion earlier this year, the venerable evening newscast, which has direct ties to Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, is likely to get some new twists and tweaks. The program, according to two people familiar with CBS News, is seen as being at the of a to-do list for Tom Cibrowski, the executive recently named to lead CBS News and whose decision-making has even more potency after his direct superior, Wendy McMahon, announced on Monday her plans to leave the company.

The show has lost a significant chunk of its viewership since a new format was unveiled in January that relies on the dual-anchor team of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, and a story mix that hinges more closely on enterprise and feature reporting than it does on breaking news. For the five-day period starting May 5, “CBS...

Don Hewitt, the brilliantly contentious founder of 60 Minutes, saw to it that the most impactful characters in key segments turned out to be the “heavies.” Hewitt wanted his audience to understand the threat posed by “bad guys” — hence an ambush interview or some other dramatic confrontation.

During his 37-year reign, Hewitt never would have imagined the list of alleged “bad guys” presently casting a shadow over his show. They include the principal stockholder of CBS, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and a major sector of the legal establishment. Welcome to the Trump media universe, Don.

Last weekend 60 Minutes sent a defiant signal to the prospective “heavies,” who include Shari Redstone and FCC chairman Brendan Cox as well as The President. The nation’s highest rated TV news show announced it would not back off its coverage nor support financial appeasement of its adversaries. The show’s boss, Bill Owens,...

Nine Democratic senators sent an open letter to Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, urging her company to not settle a lawsuit filed by President Trump — which seeks $20 billion in damages — over what he claims was a deceptively edited interview aired by CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

“This lawsuit is an attack on the United States Constitution and the First Amendment. It has absolutely no merit and it cannot stand,” the senators wrote in the letter, dated May 7. “In the United States of America, presidents do not get to punish or censor the media for criticizing them. Freedom of the press is what sets us apart from tin-pot dictatorships and authoritarian regimes.”

The letter, addressed to Redstone and posted publicly, was signed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-r.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.

“I remember it vividly, honestly, like it was yesterday,” Larry Mathews, the 69-year-old actor who played Ritchie Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, told Remind. He was rehearsing an episode where Ritchie invites dozens of kids from his school to his 8th birthday party when producer Carl Reiner interrupted the cast with an important announcement.

“Carl came in and said, ‘Everybody stop. Just stop everything,’” Mathews remembered. “And we were all like, ‘What?’ And he goes, ‘The president’s just been assassinated.’ The silence was deafening.”

The cast gathered around a working prop radio in the Petrie living room set and heard the news together. “We basically listened to Walter Cronkite‘s newscast on the assassination. And then Carl told everybody to go home,” Mathews said.

“We’re done. We’re going to shut down,” ordered Reiner. “We’ll pick it up next week. Everybody needs to go.”

Dick Van Dyke...

Updated with additional details and comments: Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, said Tuesday that he is resigning from the venerable CBS newsmagazine, telling staffers he had lost his ability to make independent decisions about the show.

“Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” Owens wrote in a memo obtained by Deadline. “To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience. So, having defended this show – and what we stand for – from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward.”

“The show is too important to the country, it has to continue, just not with me as the Executive Producer.”

The New York Times first reported on his exit. Read Owens’ full memo below.

(Updated 7:08 Pm Pt with America First Legal Foundation statement) With the countdown on for David Ellison and Skydance’s takeover of Paramount, the behind-the-scenes battle over Seal Team and the power of inclusion policies at CBS has come to an end.

A federal judge on Monday approved a joint request from CBS Studios and former Seal Team script coordinator Brian Beneker to dismiss the year-old case. Beneker, who is white, sued in February 2024 claiming he wasn’t given a permanent gig on the David Boreanaz-led series “due to his race, sex, and heterosexuality” and the “illegal policy” of diversity, equity and inclusion measures.

Even though it had already been made public that Seal Team was coming to an end late in 2024, Beneker was looking in his suit to score $500,000 in alleged lost wages, and “an injunction requiring Defendants to offer Plaintiff a full-time job as a producer.”

Now U.

The venerable “CBS Evening News” has, for many of its viewers, been something consumed along with dinner. In recent weeks, the show has served up reports that could stop someone in mid-bite.

Correspondent Nikki Battiste recently traveled to New Jersey, where CBS News cameras were allowed into the bedroom of an Als patient on the day she had chosen to die. The video stopped just before the woman drank medicine that would put her into a deep sleep before passing on — all legal under state law. Half a world away, foreign correspondent Debora Patta recently managed to get into Sudan after two years of trying, and delivered a searing report on the plight of children there who aren’t getting the help once expected from the now-shuttered United States Agency for International Development. One infant shown in the report was starving, barely able to move, and clearly blind in one eye.

Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald wasn't interested in making yet another film about the Beatles. That's why when producer Peter Worsley approached him with the rights for One to One — John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1972 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden — the filmmaker asked himself, "What can we do to make this a must-see film rather than just another thing documenting Lennon and the Beatles' careers?"

The answer was a revelatory inside look at the 18 months Lennon and Ono spent living in Greenwich Village and delivering an immersive cinematic experience that brings to life electrifying, never-before-seen material and newly restored footage of Lennon's only full-length, post-Beatles concert. With music produced by Sean Ono Lennon, One to One: John and Yoko premieres exclusively in Imax theaters on April 11.

"It has pretty incredible rarity value, and it was only ever released before on VHS in 1986 — with very poor quality — and the family...

We love speaking with filmmaker Andrew Davis. In late 2023 The Fugitive director came on our podcast The B-Side to discuss a slew of hidden gems as well as the 4K release of his Harrison Ford blockbuster.

Davis is back to talk about his novel Disturbing the Bones, a political thriller that reads like an entertaining, extrapolated version of some of his best films. The plot concerns an archaeological dig in Illinois wherein a body is discovered. It leads to a murder investigation amidst a global crisis spurned by a catastrophic, nuclear mistake.

The Film Stage spoke with Davis about the book, his Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Collateral Damage, his upcoming projects, and the state of both the film industry and the country.

You will earnestly learn about a lot of little things if you read/listen to this interview. Enjoy!

The Film Stage: Andrew Davis, welcome back! Today we’re...

Tom Llamas, who left a prominent anchor-in-waiting role at ABC News for one at NBC News in 2021, is no longer standing in queue.

Llamas will take over as anchor of “NBC Nightly News” at some point after Lester Holt steps down from the venerable evening newscast in early summer. Llamas, who has been hosting an early-evening program on the NBC News Now live-streaming service, will continue to do so, meaning that each weeknight, he will lead “Nightly” from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. eastern, then immediately move to the hour of his streaming program, “Top Story.”

“Anchoring ‘NBC Nightly News’ is a profound honor and one that carries tremendous responsibility. I look forward to working with the world class journalists at ‘Nightly News’ and ‘Top Story’ to bring viewers the most important stories every night,” Llamas said in a statement. “Lester Holt is a great man and one of...

Robert Richter, an independent filmmaker and producer whose credits include nearly 90 documentaries on a wide range of subjects, died at his home in New York City on February 16 following complications associated with heart failure. He was 95.

A three-time Academy Award nominee for best documentary short, Richter’s expanse of accolades included a 2008 National Emmy for “exceptional merit in nonfiction filmmaking” as executive producer on the HBO version of his documentary feature “The Last Atomic Bomb,” and three duPont Columbia Broadcast Journalism awards (TV’s Pulitzer Prize). Richter was the only independent producer to receive the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global 500 Award.

Born and raised in New York City, Richter’s decades-long career in filmmaking began at Occidental College in California with an experimental Telluride Association program, followed by a B.A. from Reed College in Oregon and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.

While studying...

In 1972, in the midst of the Watergate scandal, Gallup first polled Americans to gauge their trust in the media. 68 percent said they did. Four years later in 1976, that rose to 72 percent.

Gallup still asks that question of consumers, and trust in media is now at an all-time low of 31 percent, a slow burn that has been ongoing for decades.

So it’s fitting that it was inside Gallup’s Washington D.C. headquarters that a cavalcade of media executives and on-air talent held forth to try and figure not only why America’s trust in media has eroded, but what they can do to reverse that trend.

The Gallup building hosted Semafor’s Innovation to Restore Trust in News: A National Summit, with Semafor co-founders Ben Smith and Justin Smith and media editor Max Tani grilling guests about the sorry state of affairs.

It also doubled as a meeting of...

Lester Holt’s announcement that he’s soon leaving his position as anchor at “NBC Nightly News” is only the latest in a wave of departures. And it comes at a moment when the national TV news media needs all the help it can get.

Holt, renowned for his ability to anchor over long periods of time during breaking news situations, said in his announcement that he plans to devote his energies to the newsmagazine “Dateline” moving forward. But his departure from the 30-minute nightly telecast that — still — draws millions of pairs of eyeballs is the latest iteration of a trend. Before Holt, there was Chuck Todd, who outright left NBC News earlier this year after exiting the moderator chair at “Meet the Press” in 2023; Hoda Kotb, who left “Today” in January; and Norah O’Donnell, whose final broadcast of “CBS Evening News” aired last month as well. All of this...

Piece of Magic Entertainment has acquired theatrical rights from Mercury Studios for “One to One: John & Yoko” across a broad swath of European territories, including France, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The documentary from Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald, which world premiered at Venice and recently played Sundance, offers an intimate look at 18 months of Lennon and Ono’s life in Greenwich Village during the early ’70s.

At its heart is newly restored footage of Lennon’s only full-length post-Beatles concert – the “One to One” benefit show at Madison Square Garden in August 1972. The film features remastered audio overseen by Sean Ono Lennon, the couple’s son.

The doc reconstructs the couple’s Greenwich Village apartment to paint a picture of their American experience, weaving in period TV footage spanning everything from Vietnam War coverage to “The Price is Right...

Norah O’Donnell’s exit from “CBS Evening News” Thursday night wasn’t what viewers might have expected. And the successor program that CBS intends to air in its place on Monday will have a similar quality.

O’Donnell bid farewell to viewers of the long-running broadcast after a surprise taped cameo from Oprah Winfrey which celebrated the anchor and showed many highlights of her tenure. O’Donnell thanked the audience for welcoming “hard news with heart into your homes,” and was spotted being surrounded by colleagues and family as the show’s credits began to roll. Coming Monday: a completely overhauled edition of the program that is taking pains to break many visual ties to the days when Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather told the nation what was most important at the end of their day.

CBS will launch a new “Evening News” that relies on a group of co-anchors, rather than a single person.

An attorney urged jurors on Tuesday to “send a message to the mainstream media” by finding that CNN defamed a security contractor in a 2021 report about Afghan refugees.

Zachary Young is suing the network in Panama City, Fla., alleging that he was falsely portrayed as engaging in an illicit “black market” in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan by offering to get refugees out the country for $14,500 apiece.

During his opening statement on Tuesday, Young’s attorney, Kyle Roche, argued that CNN’s reporting was “reckless” with the facts, and that the network “set out to destroy Zach’s reputation.”

“They didn’t care about the truth,” he said. “They cared about theater and they cared about ratings.”

Roche argued that jurors can “change an industry” by sending a message that will be heard by “every news organization in America.”

“Reckless journalism is un-American,” he argued. “It’s dangerous,...

Aaron Brown died on Sunday in Washington, D.C. He was a veteran radio journalist who was known for keeping calm while reporting on the hijackings on September 11, 2001. He was 76 years old. The person speaking for the family, Molly Levinson, stated that pneumonia was what killed him.

The most important thing that happened to Brown was on September 11, 2001. He saw the World Trade Center towers fall while reporting live from a CNN rooftop in Manhattan. He turned his back on the camera and looked at the disaster 30 blocks away, saying, “Just look at that; that’s the scariest scene you will ever see.” Over the next 17 hours, his steady speech and deep thoughts helped millions understand what was happening.

Brown discussed that day in an interview with NPR’s “All Things Considered” in 2011. “In some ways, you were too focused to be anything other than a reporter with the biggest story anyone had ever had,...

Aaron Brown, a news anchor known for his coverage during CNN’s broadcast of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, died on Sunday in Washington, D.C., his family confirmed to CNN. He was 76.

Brown began his career as a radio talk show host in Minneapolis before moving to local television in Seattle and eventually becoming the anchor of ABC’s overnight news programs “World News Now” and “World News Tonight Saturday.” He joined CNN in 2001, eventually anchoring “NewsNight,” which combined breaking news with in-depth analysis.

Brown was still in training when the Sept. 11 terror attacks occurred and though he hadn’t been scheduled to go on air that morning, but he rushed to CNN’s Manhattan office, making his first appearance as an anchor and guiding millions of viewers through the dramatic events of Sept. 11.

“I felt, in that moment, profoundly stupid,” Brown told CNN’s Brian Stelter years later in...

Over the past 12 months, Elon Musk continued his streak of somehow finding a way into just about every social-political conversation, it seemed, something that was readily apparent in his midyear endorsement of Donald Trump.

As the co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, a made-up department designed to identify areas of the federal government to cut, Musk inevitably will be that provocateur once again.

The wild card is ego, as there may be only so much space in the spotlight for the world’s richest man and the world’s most powerful one. After all, Barack Obama’s relentless mocking of Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner has been seen as a tipping point that led to the then-The Apprentice host’s first White House bid; Likewise, it was Joe Biden’s diss of Musk at a White House electric-vehicle event that help set off the latter’s migration from left to right.

Donald Trump was the winner in the election against Kamala Harris last month, but CBS believes the past and soon-to-be current Potus should be the loser in his $10 billion so-called deceptive editing lawsuit over an October 60 Minutes interview with the Vice President.

“Plaintiff’s attempt to punish Defendants for their editorial judgments is barred by the First Amendment,” declares a motion to dismiss filed Friday by CBS Broadcasting in Texas federal court.

In a separate document, the network said of Trump’s October 31-filed complaint: “The Court should reject President Trump’s naked forum-shopping and either dismiss or transfer the case.” Mocking the matter as no more than a “generalized grievance,” CBS’ memorandum on jurisdiction added: “For the foregoing reasons, this Court should dismiss Plaintiff’s Complaint with prejudice … or, in the alternative, transfer this case to the Southern District of New York.”

Exclaiming that CBS blatantly violated Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act,...

Whoopi Goldberg going out of her way to support Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son will not sit well with Joe Rogan. The online influencer has been feuding with the TV show host for some time now over their politics and ideology. Goldberg put her credibility on the line when she stated that Hunter Biden’s case was very different from that of Trump’s legal issues, because of the former’s drug problem.

Whoopi Goldberg in The View | Credits: ABC News

Outgoing President Biden shocked everyone on Sunday when he issued a full and unconditional pardon to Hunter Biden. This came after the President shared in June that he would not use his executive authority to pardon or commute his sentence. Hunter Biden was convicted of federal gun charges and federal tax evasion charges.

Whoopi Goldberg Supporting Joe Biden’s Decision Wouldn’t Sit Well With Joe...

Arguably one of the most powerful podcast hosts, Joe Rogan boasts millions of listeners each month. Given the scope of his audience, he remains one of the most influential figures in the media space.

Considering this, it's all the more surprising when Joe shares some dubious takes with his audience. Recently, fans were left scratching their heads after Joe claimed to have proof that dragons were a true historical being.

Joe Rogan Claimed He Had "Evidence" That Dragons Were Real

On his X/Twitter account, Joe shared the link to a YouTube video entitled "Evidence Dragons Were Real." The nearly 23-minute video claims to have proof that dragons once walked the Earth along with other animal species. As of this article's writing, Joe's message on X has over 3.3 million views, and many of the comments below the video refer to how Joe directed them to the clip.

"I believe because Joe Rogan believes,...

The View co-host Joy Behar recently took a dig at Joe Rogan, and he clapped back with an epic response. So, what kicked off this firestorm, and how did the podcast host and Mma commentator respond?

The View: Joy Behar And Others Are Not Shy About Controversial Opinions

When it comes to The View and the cast they have as co-anchors, between the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, and others, there is no shortage of controversial opinions. Because those anchors never shy away from politics or other controversial topics, this also opens the door to controversy, or, at the very least, ruffling some feathers.

Joy Behar is never afraid to get in there and mix it up. Recently, she went after podcast host and Mma commentator Joe Rogan. Behar took a jab at Rogan over his belief in dragons. She said: “We went from Walter Cronkite to this guy Joe Rogan,...

Update: CBS on January 8 announced that due to sports coverage of Farmers Insurance Open on January 24, O’Donnell’s original date to sign off from “CBS Evening News,” her last broadcast will now take place on January 23.

Norah O’Donnell’s last day behind the anchor desk of “CBS Evening News” will be January 24, CBS News revealed Friday, setting up a timeline for a transition to a new format for a venerable news program that has been part of its schedule, under various names, since 1941.

O’Donnell, who became anchor of “Evening News” in July of 2019, is moving to a new role as a senior correspondent that will have her contribute special reports built around enterprise work or landing interviews with prominent newsmakers. She will continue to contribute to “Evening News,” “60 Minutes” and other CBS News programs. The arrangement is understood to be part of a longer-term commitment that the anchor...

Whoopi Goldberg and her co-hosts on The View do not seem to close their discussions on Joe Rogan anytime soon. However, there might be one voice in the show who could see things a little more neutral and doesn’t hate Rogan. Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former Assistant to the President during Donald Trump’s earlier presidency, joined as a permanent co-host on the show from 2022.

Whoopi Goldberg in a still from The View | Credits: ABC

Griffin was one of the former Trump administration officials who endorsed Kamala Harris during this election. However, Griffin refused to jump onto the hate wagon against Rogan and other X influencers. Griffin wanted the left and right to have conversations and not go into their own echo chambers.

One Co-Host On The View Sees Rationale Amidst Whoopi Goldberg And Others’ Blinding Hate Alyssa Farah Griffin in The View | Credits: ABC

Whoopi Goldberg and The View...

Chicago – At 12:30pm Central Time on November 22nd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullet. The shots that echoed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, has resonated now for 61 years, but beyond the actual event there was a treasure trove of TV and radio coverage that was recorded, and David Von Pein has collected it on YouTube.

Von Pein’s collection be found on his comprehensive YouTube channel. Click JFK Channel to start browsing. Since our 2021 interview, Von Pein has continued his dogged research into this fascinating recorded history, as it has been said that news coverage and the media changed forever that weekend between the assassination on November 22nd and Kennedy’s burial on November 25th.

Walter Cronkite Delivers the ‘News’ on November 22nd, 1963

Photo credit: CBS-tv

Not only has Von Pein found high quality as-it-happened video from the three major networks at the time – CBS-tv,...

A veteran TV journalist is leaving the cable news game: Chris Wallace is exiting CNN after spending three years there as a host and anchor, TVLine has confirmed.

Wallace told The Daily Beast (who first reported the news) that he’s looking to move to an independent platform via streaming or podcasting, since that’s “where the action seems to be” these days. “This is the first time in 55 years I‘ve been between jobs,” he added. “I am actually excited and liberated by that.”

More from TVLineBrian Stelter Returning to CNN Two Years After Reliable Sources CancellationTVLine Items: Real Housewives Trailer,...

Jimmy Carter, who turned 100 years old Oct. 1, has lived quite a life, on and off screen.

Aside from his presidency during 1977 to 1981, the former president had many iconic pop cultural moments both before he became leader of the United States as well as during and after.

Carter shared moments with cultural figures like Andy Warhol, the Allman Brothers, Johnny Cash, Lucille Ball, Walter Cronkite and more. His real speech was featured at the beginning of 1978’s Americathon before a fictional mob attacks the White House and hangs Carter and his cabinet because of the energy crisis. The Bruce Willis movie The Last Boy Scout is based on Willis’ character being the Secret Service agent who saved Carter from a fictional assassination attempt, and there is an out of focus actor playing Carter in a flash back.

Follow along below for a list of pop culture moments Jimmy Carter cemented into...

Saturday Night Live’s landmark 50th season will kick off nearly over a month ahead of the 2024 presidential election with plenty of material for its cold opens and other political skits.

With Maya Rudolph returning to portray Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, its likely that James Austin Johnson will portray Donald Trump and or Joe Biden in parodies of the candidates. Doug Emhoff (who has been portrayed in the past by Martin Short) and Vice President Tim Walz will also likely receive parodies, though Short’s Only Murders in the Building costar Steve Martin has declined the ask to portray Walz.

The first five consecutive SNL shows’ hosts and musical guests have been announced, and given the volume and talent of cast members over the years, a look back at political parodies by hosts, guests and members of the comedy ensemble can be found below.

Will Ferrell as...

Updated: Jimmy Carter passed the century mark today, the first president to do so, with Joe Biden and other former presidents honoring the Nobel Prize winner and human rights advocate.

On his 100th birthday, Carter is in hospice care and confined to his modest Plains, Ga home, but in recent months, “he’s really gotten re-engaged with the world,” his grandson, Jason Carter, told The New York Times. His grandson has said that Carter wanted to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election.

The former president did make an appearance outdoors today, surrounded by family, to watch a military flyover to make his birthday.

Former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends in his backyard in Plains, Georgia. CBS News was there as he was wheeled outside, beneath the shade of his trees, to witness a military flyover with four fighter jets.

Clifford Bell, the cabaret impresario, director and producer affectionately known as “Lawrence of Cabarabia,” died Sunday of natural causes at Cha Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, publicist Steve Moyer announced. He was 67.

“Clifford Bell was a force of nature!” Moyer said in a statement. “He lived and breathed music every day of his life to the very end.”

A 40-year show business veteran, Bell wrote and directed variety performances featuring the likes of Walter Cronkite, Colin Powell and Michael Eisner at the Honda Center in Anaheim and toured with Katey Sagal and her band.

As a cabaret director, he helmed shows for singers Gregg Marx, Todd Murray, Lois Bourgon, Carol Whitener, Joanne Tatham, Bonnie Gilgallon, Lauren White, Quinn Johnson, Chase Masterson, Lee Lessack, Bobbie Norman and Katrina Aguilar.

He produced albums for singers Betsyann Faiella, Eileen Barnett and Judy Butterfield and directed one-person shows starring Beth Lapides, Joan Hotchkis, Juliette Marshall,...

Univision News anchor Jorge Ramos is saying goodbye to the Spanish-language network after nearly 40 years on the air, our sister site Variety first reported. He will remain at the network through the presidential election and depart some time in December.

“This is not a farewell. I will continue anchoring Noticiero Univision until December, and afterwards I will share my professional plan,” he said in a note to his colleagues Monday. “I am deeply grateful for these four decades at Univision and very proud to be part of a team that has established strong leadership over the years.”

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In a seismic shift for Spanish-language TV news in America, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos is leaving the network after a 40-year tenure.

TelevisaUnivision said that Ramos and Univision News both agreed not to renew his contract, which is soon to expire. He will step down as co-anchor of Noticiero Univision at the end of 2024, after the U.S. Presidential Election.

Ramos has been the anchor or co-anchor of Noticiero Univision, which is the most-watched Spanish-language evening news broadcast in America, for 38 years, a tenure that began in 1986. He was the face of Univision’s news division for decades, drawing comparisons to Walter Cronkite for his length of tenure and the trust he had with viewers.

However, as he himself noted in a 2021 column, the TV landscape of 1986 bears little resemblance to that of the present day.

“I started at a time when the big network’s TV anchors – Peter Jennings,...

Phil Jones, who as a CBS News correspondent covered some of Washington’s most momentous political battles including Watergate and President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, has died. He was 87.

The network said that Jones died over the weekend in Florida. Watch a CBS News tribute reel below.

Jones began his career at an Indiana TV station before leaving to work at Wcco-tv in Minneapolis for seven years. He was one of the first local reporters to go to Vietnam, in 1965, and he later returned, according to the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

He joined CBS News in 1969. He was recognized with an Emmy for his work covering Vietnam and, according to the network, was among the correspondents known as “Cronkite’s kids,” the team of reporters who were proteges to then-anchor Walter Cronkite.

Jones was present on the White House lawn as Richard Nixon resigned and left on Marine One,...

Chicago – Last week, the world woke to the news that Phil Donahue, talk show pioneer in the 1970s and beyond, had passed away at age 88. Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com took an Exclusive Portrait of the talker in 2010, and the Portrait is republished as a contributions memorial to Phil Donahue.

Midwestern at heart, Donahue was born in Cleveland, and found his way to Notre Dame University, where he graduated in 1957. He began his broadcasting career in Cleveland, but his break came as nationwide notice was focused on his interviews, subsequent work as a news anchor in Dayton, Ohio, and as a stringer for the Walter Cronkite-era CBS Evening News. His Dayton radio show “Conversation Piece” early on scored a triple historical talk coup with then presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson and activist leader Malcolm X.

Phil Donahue in Chicagoland, 2010

Photo credit: Joe...

Phil Donahue, the talk show innovator who changed the conversation and the course of daytime television with the weekday program he hosted for nearly three decades, has died. He was 88.

Donahue died Sunday night at his New York City home following a long illness, his family announced.

Survivors include his wife of 44 years, That Girl star Marlo Thomas. They met when she was a guest on his show — he was a divorced single father living with and raising his four sons at the time — before marrying in May 1980.

The Cleveland native hosted more than 6,000 iterations of The Phil Donahue Show, from the first, broadcast from a Dayton, Ohio station on Nov. 7, 1967, through the last, seen nationwide on syndication via Multimedia Entertainment, on Sept. 13, 1996.

Donahue addressed contemporary and controversial topics and invited his studio audience to participate, carrying his microphone into the crowd. He became adept at interweaving their questions and...

During his iconic career at CBS News, Dan Rather was on the ground in Dallas moments after President Kennedy is assassinated; covered the Civil Rights moment and the Vietnam War; and was the only anchor in China’s Tiananmen Square before the crackdown on protesters. He also famously was roughed up during the 1968 Democratic National Convention — which inspired Variety to ask Rather, still going strong at 92 (you can read his current “Steady” columns at steady.substack.com), to reflect on that tumultuous moment in U.S. politics and how it compares to what has happened in 2024.

One of the hallmarks of a good broadcast journalist is the ability to roll with the proverbial punches during live events. You have to be a good ad-libber and be able to pivot, ready for the unexpected. Suffice it to say that on March 31, 1968, I was not ready when President Lyndon Johnson delivered a shocker.

Exclusive: Media veterans Jeff Bewkes, Howard Stringer and Jeremy Fox have launched Thoroughbred Studios. Their fledgling business has galloped to an overall deal with iHeartPodcasts and scored a second season order for its first project, a BBC audio drama about the CIA.

Thoroughbred’s Usp will be creating drama based on monumental events from modern U.S. history. One of the first out of the gate will be a moon-landing podcast for iHeart from 24 producer Stephen Kronish. Another project will be on the Vietnam war.

The focus will be on dramas that delve into hidden truths behind events of the American Century, a period taken as starting in the middle of the 20th century. The iHeartPodcasts deal is for a minimum of four podcasts over the next two years.

The Thoroughbred set-up sees Bewkes serve as Chair, Fox as CEO and Stringer as Exec Producer. The trio have held several...

CBS wants to get back in the battle for evening-news viewers with a new take on the format that looks very little like the evening news viewers have come to know.

The network plans to rebuild its long-running “CBS Evening News,” retooling anchors, format and segments in a bid to make the half-hour once led by Walter Cronkite more valuable for modern news viewers who don’t recognize the show as the cultural touchstone it was in the 1960s and 70s.

After the 2024 election, with current anchor Norah O’Donnell stepping away for a new senior correspondent role at CBS News, executives at the Paramount Global news operation will put the show under the aegis of Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” Working with a new on-air team that includes co-anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois, chief weathercaster Lonnie Quinn and Washington-based “Face The Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan,...

CBS Evening News will be revamped after the election, with John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois anchoring from New York and leading an ensemble that includes Margaret Brennan regularly leading coverage from Washington, D.C. and Lonnie Quinn providing weather segments.

Norah O’Donnell, who has anchored the newscast for the past five years, announced earlier this week that she is stepping down after the election to serve as a senior correspondent focused on major one-on-one interviews and longform reporting.

In addition to the new format, the plans are to infuse the broadcast with more 60 Minutes content and correspondents, with that show’s executive producer Bill Owens expanding his role and serving as supervising producer of the evening newscast. Correspondents from the show will be filing for the Evening News “when they have big news to break,” according to a memo that went out to staffers today from Wendy McMahon, the CEO of CBS News and Stations.

Watching Huw Edwards take his place in the dock at Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning was a surreal experience.

The man who was once the BBC’s highest paid news anchor, earning a salary almost on par with the corporation’s director general Tim Davie, cut a pathetic, solitary figure behind the glass panels of the dock. His voice was impassive as he stated his name, age and partial address.

It was equally impassive when, to everyone’s surprise, Edwards pled guilty to all three counts of “making indecent images of children.” So shocked was I to hear his first guilty plea that my hands froze over my keyboard as I was furiously making notes of the proceedings, my ears straining to ensure I’d heard correctly as he again pleaded guilty to the second charge and finally to the third.

In the U.K., the offense of “making...

Norah O’Donnell’s run as anchor of CBS Evening News is coming to an end, but the veteran journalist is not leaving CBS News.

O’Donnell is set to leave the anchor desk after the 2024 presidential election — her seventh U.S. election she has covered as a journalist — and will become CBS News special correspondent at the network. In her new role, she will conduct newsmaking interviews and other reports for CBS News programming with appearances on CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes.

“In this new role, Norah will have the time and the support to deliver even more of the exceptional stories she is known,” wrote Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations, in a memo to staff (full note below).

In her new role, O’Donnell will contribute newsmaker interviews across CBS platforms, including streaming, digital, primetime and Paramount+. That will include appearances on other news broadcasts besides CBS Evening News.

Norah O’Donnell will cede the reins of the venerable “CBS Evening News” after the 2024 presidential election in favor of a new role as a senior correspondent who will seek out big interviews and opportunities for deeper reporting, the latest major change at CBS News after its business was merged with that of the local-tv operations of parent company Paramount Global.

O’Donnell, who recently celebrated her fifth year in the anchor chair, sees an opportunity to pursue signature interviews with top newsmakers — something that proved appealing to her after logging stints as both a morning-show co-anchor and an evening-news presence and after her recent sit-down with Pope Francis earlier this year.

“Together, our team has won Emmy, Murrow, and DuPont awards. We managed to anchor in-studio through Covid; we took the broadcast on the road from aircraft carriers to the Middle East, and around the world. We were privileged to conduct...

Even Walter Cronkite might be overwhelmed.

When the news program “CBS News 24/7” surfaces Wednesday morning on streaming venues, it may surprise the average information junkie. There’s no typical anchor behind a desk here.

Instead, on-screen hosts too busy to read scripted lines from a teleprompter will guide viewers from one story to the next, many of which are happening in real time. All are displayed prominently on a screen of insta-feeds from CBS newsrooms around the nation or from points of interest around the world. When it’s time to move beyond the quick headline, or some chatter about what’s happening at the moment, the host is meant to identify the feed, then let viewers hear from people and experts on the ground. It’s entirely possible that a host might start talking to producers and assignment editors while on camera about what’s going on in the...