Two months after joining CBS’ The Early Show, Shelley Ross is “rattling CBS,” so writes the NY Post’s Page Six.
“The screaming, the 3 a.m. phone calls, it’s all happening. Shelley’s working with a much thinner staff than she’s used to. She’s driving the production staff crazy,” one insider tells the Post. The item details a purported dispute between Ross and Evening News EP Rick Kaplan over newsgathering expenses related to the California wildfires.
A CBS News spokesperson tells TVNewser the incident, which involved a chartered plane, never happened. The “charter on Oct. 24 was booked and paid for by the CBS Evening News for the purpose of getting the broadcast’s staff that had been covering the wildfires back to New York in plenty of time for the next night’s broadcast. The Early Show played no role whatsoever in that process.”
And as for the “screaming” and early morning phone calls, the spokesperson says, “We don’t comment on malicious rumors.”
The Post also reports, “eight staffers are said to have left the show, having either quit the network entirely or transferred to other jobs at CBS.” The spokesperson tells TVNewser she knows of only three people who have left, but adds, “There has been a natural attrition like there would be at any company. There are many people inside and outside of CBS that would love the opportunity to work for Shelley and The Early Show.”