CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King got picked to announce to that show’s viewers that CBS News had named Susan Zirinsky its first female president. She’s replacing David Rhodes, who re-launched CBS This Morning and hired King to co-host.
Even so, King told viewers to “see my big smile – all 106 teeth smiling today,” adding that she had done ” “the happy dance” when she got the news Sunday night “on the Upper West Side.”
King noted Zirinsky was the model for Holly Hunter’s character in the 1980’s movie Broadcast News – back when it was not jarring to hear an accomplished female executive called a “smart cookie,” as King did in describing the well-regarded, accomplished Zirinsky in 2018.
Rhodes, King said, is staying at CBS in capacity as senior adviser to CBS News and to acting CBS Corp CEO Joe Ianello.
“I feel like we were sort of like a ship, not sinking but taking on water,” King said, without mentioning the morning program’s ratings tumble started when Rhodes jettisoned Charlie Rose after multiple women came forward alleging sexual misconduct/harassment at his PBS show production house.
“I feel that she is somebody who can right the ship,” King enthused. “Because she gets us, she knows us, and by ‘us’ I mean this organization. She has been here for a very long time, she is a smart cookie and she is badass in every sense of the word.”
“I’m really excited about this,” King gushed – good news no doubt to her fans, who had recently read a gossip column report she was irked about the exit of CBS This Morning’s showrunner and might walk.
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