CBS News has its first high-profile exit following the hire of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief earlier this month.
John Dickerson, the co-anchor of the CBS Evening News, said Monday that he will leave CBS News at the end of the year. Dickerson currently anchors the evening newscast alongside Maurice Dubois, having been paired up early this year in a bid to reboot the program.
It is not immediately clear why Dickerson is leaving CBS.
“Local news: At the end of this year, I will leave CBS, sixteen years after I sat in as Face the Nation anchor for the first time,” Dickerson wrote on Instagram. “I am extremely grateful for all that CBS gave me— the work, the audience’s attention and the honor of being a part of the network’s history— and I am grateful for my dear colleagues who’ve made me a better journalist and a better human. I will miss you.”
Dickerson’s looming exit portends significant changes to the flagship evening newscast, which has been stuck in third place behind ABC News and NBC News for years. The newscast was rebooted earlier this year under 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens, but Owens exited the company a few months later, citing interference from network executives. It is not clear what Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski have planned for the evening newscast.
“After 16 years at CBS News and contributing to every program here, John Dickerson has decided to step away at the end of the year. John epitomizes the very best of journalism,” CBS News president Tom Cibrowski said in a statement. “He will co-anchor the CBS Evening News until the holidays, when he will say farewell. Until then, we’ll have plenty of time to thank him for his work here and honor his contributions to our success.”
As he noted in his message, Dickerson first sat at the Face the Nation moderator chair in 2009, and later would become CBS News’ political director, a contributor to 60 Minutes, and later on co-anchor of CBS Mornings.
The anchor also took on his own network earlier this year, after Paramount settled with President Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, calling the settlement a “new obstacle” to fact-based news coverage.
“Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you’ve traded away that trust?” he said. “The audience will decide that.”
Dickerson, it’s worth noting, has interviews Trump more than 20 times during his CBS career, and also moderated CBS’ two presidential debates during the 2016 campaign.
