CBS News Shuffle/ABC News Accidental Reply All

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Exclusive: ‘CBS This Morning’ Co-Anchor Bianna Golodryga’s Future on the Morning Show Is Unclear

Three sources familiar with internal discussions at CBS News tell me that newly minted “CBS This Morning” co-anchor Bianna Golodryga likely won’t survive a reshuffling of the morning program being overseen by CBS News President Susan Zirinsky. While I’m told that Zirinsky hasn’t made a final decision, sources at CBS News say they would be surprised if she remained a part of the program.

With all the changes at CBS News in the past year, it’s important to note that this is the current thinking at the network, and everything is always subject to change.  

In response to a request for comment, a CBS News spokesperson said, “We love Bianna. There’s no shortage of rumors and speculation about the future and we’re not going to engage.”

Golodryga joined CBS News in September 2017 under an unusual deal brokered by her agent at CAA, Alan Berger. The deal allowed her to simultaneously serve as a correspondent on CBS News and appear on CNN daily. Unlike Anderson Cooper, who works most of the time at CNN and occasionally contributes to the CBS program “60 Minutes,” Golodryga essentially worked at both networks 50-50 for the first year of her contract.

That changed in October 2018 when she was picked to join “CBS This Morning” as a co-anchor alongside Norah O’Donnell, John Dickerson and Gayle King. While Golodryga still appears on CNN, she’s reduced her role dramatically.

Golodryga, by all accounts, is beloved and respected at CBS News and it would be unusual for CBS News to move her off the program after she’s been co-anchoring for less six months. But Zirinsky is putting her stamp on the news division. If Golodryga gets moved off CTM, will she remain at CBS News or hop over to CNN?

On Friday, Variety’s Brian Steinberg reported that King is close to finalizing a deal to stay on the morning show. My sources have confirmed that reporting telling me the deal is all but finalized and that King will have a lot of input into how the program is structured.

A little more than a year ago, I was the first to report that Dickerson was set to join “CBS This Morning” as co-anchor, filling the seat left by Charlie Rose after he was fired following a raft of sexual misconduct allegations, and now it looks as if Dickerson is headed to “60 Minutes,” as the Daily Beast first reported and my sources have confirmed.

Two CBS sources told me that if O’Donnell heads to anchor “CBS Evening News” — the morning show will likely be anchored by King and two male co-anchors.

The question is…will Zirinsky want to move off a woman only to replace her with a man after all of the misconduct allegations CBS has faced in the past 18 months?

ABC Executive Accidently Sends Reply-All Email About Suing Network (She Says It Was a Joke)

A source sent me an interesting email exchange from early March. Aaron Katersky, an ABC News Radio correspondent, sent an email to two ABC News Listservs: ABC News Business staff and ABC News Sports staff. The subject of the email was about the news that 28 members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team had filed a gender-discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal pay.

Wendy Fisher, vice president at ABC News, replied-all (ostensibly reaching at least dozens of ABC News staffers) and noted that the news came on International Women's Day.

Then Barbara Fedida, senior vice president for talent, editorial strategy and business affairs, replied, “Brilliant we shud [sic] too.”

Fedida thought she was just replying to Fisher, but she replied, in fact, to all the ABC News domestic employees, not just the two groups initially copied on Katersky’s email.

The interesting part of this is that, in her role, Fedida negotiates and is aware of the compensation of many ABC News employees.

Fedida replied-all again a little more than 40 minutes later and said, “The perils of walking and emailing at the same time. The note was in jest — what I thought was a private response to a friend. Like I said in this 9am meeting, International Women’s Day should be celebrated every day and not just one day bc it’s important to have these open and transparent conversations every day.”

Still, three ABC News employees I talked with have been scratching their heads and wondering if Fedida knows about an imbalance in pay at the network?