Top CBS News star QUITS without explanation as new anti-woke boss Bari Weiss begins to clean house

CBS Evening News anchor John Dickerson has dramatically quit his role on the struggling show – and not offered any explanation for his departure. 

John Dickerson, 57, announced his exit on Instagram Monday, just nine months after he began hosting the flagship broadcast with co-anchor Maurice DuBois.

Dickerson wrote: ‘Local news: At the end of this year, I will leave CBS, sixteen years after I sat in as Face the Nation anchor for the first time. 

‘I am extremely grateful for all that CBS gave me— the work, the audience’s attention and the honor of being a part of the network’s history— and I am grateful for my dear colleagues who’ve made me a better journalist and a better human. I will miss you.’

Dickerson joined CBS News in 2009 and was handed the network’s most prestigious job earlier this year. 

Having he and DuBois co-host Evening News was seen as a bold experiment. 

The pairing – which replaced Norah O’Donnell – has been a huge ratings flop and it is unclear whether Dickerson was fired. He will host his final broadcast in December. 

Former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News earlier this month.

Weiss, who runs the anti-woke The Free Press news website, has been given a broad remit by CBS’s new owner David Ellison to tame liberal excesses at the Tiffany Network in a bid to boost ratings and win back viewers’ trust.

The 41 year-old is seen as a media visionary. She quit her opinion editor role at The New York Times in 2021 over the paper’s narrow liberal views and staff bullying of anyone who dared to voice a different opinion.

Weiss began a small news site called Honestly, which later became The Free Press and which was sold to CBS News’s parent company Paramount as part of a $150 million deal that highlighted the dazzling success of her endeavors.  

Problems at Evening News pre-date Weiss’s arrival by months and it is unclear if she is behind Dickerson’s apparent ouster.

CBS Evening news is watched by around 3.6 million viewers nightly- a 14 percent slump compared to the same time last year.

The news network’s president Tom Cibrowski sought to put a positive spin on Dickerson’s departure, saying he ‘epitomizes the very best in journalism.’

Cibrowski added: ‘We’ll have plenty of time to thank him for his work here and honor his contributions to our success.’

It is unclear if DuBois will host Evening News on his own after Dickerson departs. Weiss is said to have held a meeting with Norah O’Donnell and is even said to have her eye on Fox News anchor Brett Baier for a top job at the network.

CBS Mornings star Gayle King is also believed to be in the firing line, with insiders say they expect her departure in the coming months.

Dickerson is married to PR executive Anne Dickerson. The couple have two children and live in Washington DC. 

He was famed for his nimble interviewing style, with the term ‘Dickersonian’ even coined by The Washington Post to describe Dickerson’s habit of wrong-footing former President George W. Bush during his two terms in office. 

Dickerson is the son of Nancy Dickerson, a pioneering female journalist who began working at CBS News in 1954, when almost all of the network’s journalists were men.

She became an associate producer of Face the Nation – a show her son would later host – and became CBS News’s first female correspondent in 1960. 

She died of a stroke in 1997 aged just 70. 

Developing story, check back for updates…