‘CBS Mornings’ To Depart Times Square Studio, Return To CBS Broadcast Center In The Fall

As the volatile network news market continues amid declining ratings, slashed budgets and uncertainty among staffers, “CBS Mornings” is the latest program seeing significant behind the scenes changes, following similar reports at ABC News.

According to the New York Post, the morning show co-hosted by Gayle King, Nate Burleson and Tony Dokoupil is set to move back to its former home at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in New York City after spending the last four years at its more luxurious and technologically advanced studio in Times Squares, located at 1515 Broadway.

“It’s all about saving money,” an insider at the network reportedly told the outlet. “This is another example of them [CBS News] not competing. It’s going back in time.”

The move is set to take place in September and comes as the show averaged a mere 1.869 million viewers and a 1.2 rating/10 share among Households during the week of March 10-14, 2025, the most recent week in which network morning news ratings are available, according to Nielsen data. 

“CBS Mornings” continues to place third among Total Viewers and in the key sales demographics, behind both “Good Morning America” on ABC and “TODAY” on NBC, which averaged 2.544 million viewers and 2.467 million viewers, respectively, during the aforementioned week.

Among Adults 18-49, the CBS morning show averaged a 0.2 rating/7 share with roughly 211,000 viewers in the demo, while the program averaged a 0.3 rating/8 share among Adults 25-54, of which 332,000 fell in the demo. “TODAY” was tops in both categories, averaging a 0.3 rating/13 share among Adults 18-49 (404,000 viewers) and a 0.5 rating/14 share among Adults 25-54 (635,000 viewers).

Reportedly, CBS’ morning show will share a smaller studio with the recently revamped and relocated “CBS Evening News,” which debuted in late January with new anchors Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, after the show spent more than five years in Washington, D.C. under now former anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell. 

Like “CBS Mornings,” the “CBS Evening News” also continues to rank third among Total Viewers and the key demos, averaging a mere 4.038 million viewers and a 2.4 rating/9 share among Households opposite “World News Tonight with David Muir” on ABC (7.492 million viewers, 4.4/15 in Households) and the “NBC Nightly News” (6.114 million, 3.6/13 in Households) under the departing anchor Lester Holt during the week of March 10-14, 2025.

“World News Tonight” leads the evening news race with a 0.5 rating/10 share among Adults 18-49 (700,000 viewers) and a 0.8 rating/11 share among Adults 25-54 (1.023 million viewers) and often places as the most watched and highest rated program on all of television.

Not helping matters for both “CBS Mornings” and the “CBS Evening News” is word that Wendy McMahon, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, has been handed a mandate by Paramount Global, parent of CBS and CBS News, to slash the division overall budget by as much as $500 million ahead of Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media. Further, McMahon’s job is rumored to be on the line just weeks after the network hired former ABC News executive Tom Cibrowski as the new president and executive editor of CBS News, reporting directly to McMahon.

“The Ellison-Skydance contingent has not been impressed by her strategy or leadership ability,” a source reportedly told the New York Post late last month during the outlet’s reporting on Cibrowski’s hiring and about the future company’s confidence in McMahon, with the outlet going so far as to report it was likely McMahon who sought out Cibrowski for the job considering his previous success as executive producer of “Good Morning America” at the time when the show overtook “TODAY” to become the most-watched morning news program – McMahon also previously worked at ABC as president of the network’s eight-owned television stations.

“There’s no way she survives,” a source is said to have told the outlet. “She has been a disaster,” the unnamed person noted, adding, “I don’t think she lasts more than a month.”

As for “CBS Mornings,” the show was reportedly renting its Times Square studio from Paramount Global in the same location where the long-running MTV show “TRL” (Total Request Live) once taped. Meanwhile, the new studio space is much smaller and is likely to pose an issue for the overlapping crews who run the day-to-day operations for both the morning show and the evening news program once the transition takes place.

“The studio is much smaller. There’s no space for couches for when the morning show hosts interview A-listers,” the New York Post reported, citing a source.

Last fall, CBS News launched the long-awaited third hour of “CBS Mornings,” titled “CBS Mornings Plus,” which premiered on select CBS-owned stations. The expansion was intended to take viewers deeper into the day’s most important headlines, as well as pop culture, entertainment, health, wellness and financial news. The program is anchored by Adriana Diaz and “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil.

“CBS Mornings airs weekdays from 7:00-9:00 a.m. ET/PT on CBS. Shawna Thomas is the show’s executive producer.