About a quarter of “CBS Evening News” staffers eligible for buyouts have chosen the option ahead of impending layoffs under editor in chief Bari Weiss, The Post has learned.
Eleven staffers opted for buyouts, which were only offered to non-unionized employees, a source with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday.
They include at least six producers out of the show’s total of roughly 20, according to another source, who added: “Seems like people are jumping ship.”
“It’s a lot of people,” a CBS insider said.
The “Evening News” has over 40 non-unionized staffers, a source said.
A CBS News rep declined to comment.
Last month, the network announced the “extraordinary chance” for eligible staffers to take a one-time voluntary buyout ahead of company-wide layoffs that could kick off as soon as March, according to a source.
The offer came after Weiss told employees in a January townhall that they were free to leave if they didn’t like her strategy for the struggling news division.
“It’s a free country, and I completely respect if you decide I’m not the right leader for you, or this isn’t the right place at the right time,” she said.
At the town hall, which came as Weiss has sought to shake up the network, she said she wants to invest in more “revelatory journalism” and emphasize “investigative scoops” that will take advantage of both online and traditional platforms.
“We have to look honestly at ourselves. We are not producing a product that enough people want,” Weiss said, adding that she hopes to “earn” the trust of CBS News staffers along the way.
She also named a slew of new contributors including the controversial anti-aging influencer Peter Attia, whose email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein has recently revealed a chummy relationship with the convicted sex trafficker.
Attia said on X earlier this month that he’s ashamed” of his “tasteless and indefensible” correspondence with Epstein — which included an email in which he told the pervert that “p—y is, indeed, low carb.”
Despite internal outrage and calls for the network to cut ties with Attia, Weiss — a longtime critic of cancel culture — has been sticking by her hire, The Post first reported.
Her other efforts to reinvigorate the network include replacing “Evening News” anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois with Tony Dokoupil.
She also shelved a “60 Minutes” report on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, waiting to air it until more reporting was added but drawing strong staff pushback at the time.
