“Gayle King’s career is over,” said President Donald Trump in a Monday Truth Social post. “She should have stayed with her belief in TRUMP. She never had the courage to do so. No talent, no ratings, no strength!!!”
He included a link to a recent article in the New York Post that claimed the longtime newswoman’s future at CBS is “murky” due to her show’s “woke” programming. King, 70, hosts the network’s flagship morning program, “CBS Mornings”.
“The audience doesn’t want woke. It doesn’t like progressive and provocative bookings,” one unnamed source told The Post. “The morning show audience wants optimism and cheer and joy and what they were producing is at odds with audience expectations.”
According to the Post, “sources with knowledge of the situation” said that King is “part of a culture that has ‘dug in’ against attempts by higher ups to move away from polarizing coverage.” It also said George Cheeks, co-CEO of CBS parent company Paramount, has promoted a diversity, equity and inclusion mandate for years.
While DEI policies were encouraged under the former President Joe Biden’s administration, Trump has made it a point to end those programs in the federal government, spurring the private sector to follow suit. Last month, the company made headlines for canceling “The Late Show” with host Stephen Colbert after the host made a joke about its recent settlement over a lawsuit Trump filed regarding a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran against Trump in the 2024 election.
In a statement, CBS said that the cancellation (effective next May) was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” Indeed, the Colbert-helmed show has often been the top performer of the broadcast TV late night offerings, beating out ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and NBC’s “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon, according to LateNighter.
Colbert, formerly of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”, brought a more political slant to the evening talk show program. Previously, it was hosted by David Letterman.
CBS’s statement didn’t stop speculation that the show’s cancellation was tied to Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media, as parodied by Comedy Central’s “South Park” (also owned by Paramount) last month. Skydance is run by David Ellison, son of top GOP donor Larry Ellison.
Per the Post’s report, “the struggling network’s new owners vow to root out left-wing bias” going forward. One “insider” quoted by the outlet pointed to a March 26 interview with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Bob the Drag Queen publicizing his first novel, “Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert”, on King’s show as an example of its left-wing bias.
King is an award-winning journalist who joined CBS News in 2011 and before that had a long career with positions at multiple stations. She spent 18 years at CBS affiliate WFSB-TV on Hartford, Ct., and hosted her own daytime program there.
In addition to hosting “CBS Mornings”, King is also editor-at-large of Oprah Daily and she hosts “Gayle King in the House,” a live, weekly radio show on SiriusXM. Her friendship with Oprah Winfrey is well known. King also made headlines this year for joining an all-female crew launched into space this spring on a Blue Origin rocket. Other crew members included pop star Katy Perry and journalist Lauren Sánchez, now the wife of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
The New York Post’s report called King’s “CBS Mornings” – which also includes co-hosts Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson – the “perennial last place show” in morning news.
Adweek’s latest rundown of morning news rankings – from the week of July 21 – did show that CBS’ program was behind NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” that week. Adweek said it brought in 1.8 million total viewers that week in the adults ages 25 to 54 demographic. It was down 2% compared to the previous week in total viewers but actually saw an 11% jump in that demo, the only network that saw double digit improvement there. Still, “compared to the same period in 2024, ‘CBS Mornings’ experienced a 10% decline in total viewers and a 20% decline in the demo.”
Broadcast TV viewing overall has been on the decline in recent years. In 2023, the Pew Research Center found that “advertiser expenditures for the news programs of the three major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) have declined substantially since 2020.”
This July, Adweek reported that May 2025 marked the first time streaming officially passed the combination of cable and broadcast, citing Nielsen’s The Gauge data. In June, that gap only widened, with streaming accounting for 46% of viewership compared to broadcast and cable’s combined 41.9%. YouTube accounts for the most streaming usage, with other social media platforms adding to the streaming slice of the pie.
Adweek noted that, as viewership declines, late night hosts were still taking in salaries over $10 million per year. According to the Post, King makes $15 million per year. It said she signed an extension contract for between $13 million and $15 million that runs through next May, citing “a well-placed source.”