CBS News has hired Patrick Becker to be a senior producer on The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell, starting on Monday, Oct. 4. Becker joins the evening newscast from CNN, where he has been senior producer for CNN Morning Programming, producing New Day for the past two years.
Becker currently oversees New Day’s 7 a.m. hour, and maintains communication from the control room with the anchors, correspondents and guests during the three-hour cable news morning show.
According to Evening News interim ep Al Ortiz, Becker is also involved in editorial decisions throughout the day and in real time for segments and interviews as they happen on-air.
“Patrick plays a critical role in coordinating production elements for the newscast and coaches a junior staff of writers, associate producers and production assistants,” Ortiz added in a note to staff.
Before CNN, Becker spent eight years at WABC in New York, where he was a line producer across all dayparts and helped lead a team of writers, producers and reporters. He was also the primary fill-in for the Morning EP.
Speaking of CBS and CNN—CBS News has still yet to name a permanent replacement for Jay Shaylor, the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer ep-turned-CBS Evening News ep who left CBS back in July after fewer than two years on the job. Al Ortiz has led the newscast on an interim basis since Shaylor’s exit. Ortiz held the role of ep of special events for 12 years, and spent the last seven years as vp of standards and practices. No stranger to the evening news, Ortiz served as ep of CBS Evening News with Dan Rather from 1998 to 2001, and began his career with CBS News in 1977 at CBS News Radio.