\n<\/p>\n
CBS News has signed a new deal with Gayle King after intense speculation about the future of the CBS Mornings co-host\u2019s role at the network.<\/p>\n
King has been the centerpiece of the network\u2019s morning show for years now, and her departure would have been a huge blow to the Bari Weiss-led network news division, which also recently lost another marquee talent with the departure of 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper.<\/p>\n
But the question of King\u2019s employment is settled \u2013 at least for now, as she will remain at the network with a new contract, according to a person familiar with the situation. In a statement, King suggested that she will remain as co-host of CBS Mornings \u2013 though she indicated that she would be open to other roles as well. Some in the industry expected King to leave the morning show, which also recently lost co-host Tony Dokoupil to the network\u2019s evening show, for a broader, more interview-driven position.<\/p>\n
\u201cRumors of my demise were inaccurate and greatly exaggerated,\u201d King said in a statement, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. \u201cCBS News is my longtime home, and I am committed to our mission. I\u2019m excited about continuing at \u2018CBS Mornings.\u2019 As always, I\u2019m open to new adventures here and ready to go. It took a minute, but we got there. And now that we are here, I am all in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weiss, who had a tabloid-covered lunch with King in early January amid rumors about her status, issued her own statement praising the longtime CBS News personality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is only one Gayle King,\u201d Weiss said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re so proud that she\u2019ll continue to call CBS home. We\u2019re thrilled to have her on in the morning \u2013 and equally excited to work with her on new, enterprising projects that bring her talents to new audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Dokoupil\u2019s recent departure from the show, CBS Mornings \u2013\u00a0which has long been stuck in third place behind morning shows from NBC and ABC \u2013 is down to just two hosts: King and former football star Nate Burleson.<\/p>\n
Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News, suggested that the show may change in the near future, as has long been expected since Weiss took over as editor-in-chief in October. \u201cWe are excited to continue to evolve CBS Mornings and can\u2019t wait for what\u2019s to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In late October, Variety reported that King would leave the morning show \u2013 but would likely move to another part of the network.<\/p>\n
King acknowledged the speculation about her future in a town hall meeting held by Weiss in late January. \u201cPeople come and pet me like a puppy and say, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry that you\u2019re leaving CBS. I won\u2019t watch you guys again. And it\u2019s not the same place.\u2019\u201d she told colleagues at the time. \u201cAnd when I come here, what I see every day are people who really love what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notably, King also had kind words for Weiss, praising her for taking questions from staff. \u201cFor many people, they\u2019ve never even heard your freaking voice,\u201d she said at the time, according to an audio recording of the meeting. \u201cSo it\u2019s good for them to see you\u2019re a real person and this is what you want and how you feel about us and how you feel about this job.\u201d<\/p>\n
A television industry insider speculated to the Guardian earlier this year that King, who reportedly pulls in $15m per year, would be wise to leave the network, particularly amid criticism of its leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t need to do this at this point in her life \u2013 she\u2019s a bona fide star,\u201d the person said. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t need this sideshow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CBS News has signed a new deal with Gayle King after intense speculation about the future of the CBS Mornings co-host\u2019s role at the network. King has been the centerpiece of the network\u2019s morning show for years now, and her departure would have been a huge blow to the Bari Weiss-led network news division, which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[4699,18389,2139,855,150,4908,3945],"class_list":{"0":"post-45847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-cbs","9":"tag-gayle","10":"tag-king","11":"tag-months","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-speculation","14":"tag-staying"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}