Exclusive | gayle king not leaving cbs just yet, despite confusion at network: ‘wait and see what happens’

Gayle King isn’t going anywhere at CBS – for now – as she wants to see what the new owners of Paramount have up their sleeves, sources tell Page Six. The 70-year-old host of ‘CBS Mornings’

has signed a contract extension that runs through next summer, we can confirm. She has already taken a pay cut down from $13 million to $10 million, as The Post previously reported, but an

industry insider said she King will not leave before parent company Paramount’s planned $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media goes through, even though things at CBS are “sh—y.” “It’s a

very useful platform for Gayle,” said the insider, “[I think] she would certainly want to continue through the midterm [elections in November 2026].” Earlier this month, News boss Wendy

McMahon at the network stepped down amid steep ratings declines at “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Evening News,” which she had tried to overhaul with a new format and anchor lineup. EXPLORE MORE

“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” she wrote in a memo to staff. CBS News president Tom Cibrowski has been left trying to keep things afloat. “As

much as  it’s still sh—y over there, it’s good for her to wait and see what happens with the merger, with new people, if they can get their act together,” said the industry insider of King.

“The folks at the Skydance have very specific ideas about how they can revitalize the news side of things, so there is reason for Gayle to hang around.” Indeed, King looked in good spirits

Wednesday night as she joined her pal Hoda Kotb at the launch of her new wellness brand, Joy 101, at Chelsea Piers in NYC, alongside ‘Today’ hosts Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager, Craig

Melvin and Dylan Dreyer. “I bet she stays, even if she gets a pay cut,” said another TV source, “People assume incorrectly that the money is the deciding factor. When in reality a pay cut

doesn’t mean that much when you are making that kind of money.” A CBS spokesperson told The Post: “Gayle is an incredibly valuable member of the CBS News family. She has no plans to go

anywhere and we couldn’t be happier about that.” Insiders previously told The Post that King’s salary is far too high to justify her show’s plummeting ratings. King, who has been at the

Tiffany network for 13 years, hosts ‘CBS Mornings’ with Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson. The show is firmly in third place behind ABCs ‘Good Morning America’ and NBC’s ‘Today’. For the week

of May 19 ‘GMA’ had 2.6 million viewers, followed by ‘Today’ with 2.5 million, and ‘CBS Mornings’ lagged behind at two million viewers. Compared to 2024, CBS’ morning show has dropped nine

percent in total viewers and 30 percent in the crucial 25-54 demo — the steepest drop in the demo among the three morning broadcasts, according to Ad Week. The industry insider insisted

things really started to freefall for CBS News when Jeff Glor left the Evening News in 2019 and the ratings went down. Paramount is currently in mediation with lawyers for President Trump

after he filed a $20 billion lawsuit against “60 Minutes,” in which he alleged the show “deceptively edited” its sitdown with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who was running for president

at the time, to make her look better. On Thursday, it was reported Paramount had offered $15 million to settle the suit. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief Brandon Carr, who is

charged with greenlighting Paramount’s merger with Skydance, has also launched a probe into the interview over claims of “news distortion.” “60 Minutes” has claimed no wrongdoing and

released the unedited interview and transcript of the interview, but the episode has rankled journalists inside of the network.