CBS This Morning executive producer Ryan Kadro has informed the morning show staff that will step down from his current role at CBS News effective January 4.
“Nearly nine years after we created CBS This Morning, I’m stepping aside and leaving it in very capable hands. This will be effective January 4, 2019. Until then I’ll be working to help transition new leadership,” Kadro stated in a note to staffers on Friday. “I want to thank you all for the tireless dedication and professionalism you bring to the newsroom and control room every day. Your passion for news and great storytelling is unrivaled. It has been an absolute privilege to work alongside all of you in our shared pursuit of excellence.”
In the note (included below), Kadro stated that he had been in talks with CBS News President David Rhodes since September. Kadro’s contract runs out at the end of 2018.
According to a network spokesperson, CBS News expects to name a successor soon.
Kadro’s departure comes amid some ratings struggles for the broadcast, and two days after the Washington Post reported that CBS settled a lawsuit with multiple former employees who sued the network for failing to act on alleged sexual harassment by former longtime CBS Newser and former CBS This Morning co-host Charlie Rose.
Kadro was named in the lawsuit by the staffers as someone who they alleged was “fully aware” of the harassment, but chose to do nothing about it.
Kadro has helmed CBS This Morning – co-hosted by Norah O’Donnell, Gayle King, John Dickerson and Bianna Golodryga– since April 2016 , and has been with the morning show since launch, working his way up the ranks to become co-executive producer in December 2015 before taking on the executive producer role 5 months later.
CBS This Morning has tried to differentiate itself from its broadcast competitors by offering two full hours of serious, “hard” news. The show has received DuPont and Peabody awards, won a Murrow Award for Best Newscast in 2017, and earned nearly 30 Emmy nominations, bringing home six trophies. Impressive for a morning show.
CTM consistently finishes No. 3 in the ratings hierarchy behind the more established Today show and Good Morning America. The broadcast went on a solid ratings run in 2016 and through a good chunk of 2017, yet ratings fell back down to Earth after Rose left the broadcast in Nov. 2017, and it is currently posting the most significant year-over-year ratings losses of the big three morning shows.
There’s also the case of the man overseeing it all, CBS News President David Rhodes. Ratings for CBS This Morning, and the CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor have been less than spectacular over the past 12 months. Rhodes replaced Scott Pelley with Glor in the CBS Evening News anchor chair on Dec. 4 2017, and added Dickerson and Gologryga to CTM earlier this year.
Ratings for CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes, however, remain strong.
Rhodes was named president of the news division in February 2011, and his contract runs out in February. Needless to say, CBS will have some important decisions to make over the next few weeks.
Here’s Kadro’s note to staff, obtained by TVNewser:
Team,
Nearly nine years after we created CBS This Morning, I’m stepping aside and leaving it in very capable hands. This will be effective January 4, 2019. Until then I’ll be working to help transition new leadership. I want to thank you all for the tireless dedication and professionalism you bring to the newsroom and control room every day. Your passion for news and great storytelling is unrivaled. It has been an absolute privilege to work alongside all of you in our shared pursuit of excellence.
In 2011 we sat in a room with a white board and a mission to reimagine morning television on a broadcast network. We were just going to do the news and whatever stories interested us. Conventions be damned. I leave CBS incredibly proud of how that has turned out. We’ve grown our share of the morning television audience to the highest levels in CBS News history. We received DuPont and Peabody awards, won a Murrow Award for Best Newscast in 2017, and earned nearly thirty Emmy nominations, bringing home six trophies. We also figured out how to show people their world in ninety-ish seconds. But every day when I walk into that newsroom, I know we’re really just getting started. The best days of CTM are in its future.
Which brings me back to my future, and this decision. David and I started a series of conversations in September. Through our discussions, I couldn’t shake the feeling in my gut that I need a new challenge (and a serious nap.) It’s the natural course of things.
Soon, I will say goodbye to this broadcast I love. I do so knowing that your garden is filled with green shoots. That you have amazing anchors, a talented senior staff who cares about you, and a division filled with people who love news and CTM as much as all of you love news and CTM. But for now, I say the biggest thank you imaginable to best team in television.
THANK YOU!
Ryan