CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King is making it clear she does not want to work with her old “frenemy” again.
A source told the New York Post that King was “not happy” that her MAGA-coded boss, Bari Weiss, suggested her CBS colleague Norah O’Donnell could claim the open third seat on the Mornings team.
“Gayle was not happy,” the source told the Post. “She does not want Norah to return to the show.”
King, 71, was reportedly upset over new promos for the program that included O’Donnell, 52, who has occasionally filled in as a guest anchor after Tony Dokoupil moved to CBS Evening News.
Another source told the outlet that King and O’Donnell were borderline “frenemies” after co-anchoring the morning show together for seven years alongside Charlie Rose during the 2010s.
“Gayle is an authentic person. She loves the news,” another source said. “Norah loves the idea of being on the news.”
Though O’Donnell is being considered for the role, several other names are in contention, including Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Eva Pilgrim, and Kelly O’Grady, according to Status.
King is an essential voice in “the process of finding a new co-host” and “nothing will happen without her blessing,” a network source told the Post.
The network is reportedly hoping to name a permanent replacement for Dokoupil as soon as September.
In addition to naming a third anchor, Weiss, Mornings interim executive producer Jon Tower, and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski are apparently planning an overhaul of the Mornings program and seemingly want to model it after MS NOW’s Morning Joe, two sources told the outlet.
“Tom is telling people that it’s going to be more of a live show with fewer people, and Jon is saying he wants it to be more loose like Morning Joe,” an insider told the Post, adding that the show will likely be more “chat-driven” in the future.
The insider added bluntly that the program is in dire need of a revamp following its historic low ratings. “The show is f--ked. They need to try something!”
The Daily Beast has reached out to CBS for comment.
O’Donnell has risen in the ranks since Weiss’s appointment as the network’s editor-in-chief last year by Trumpy nepo-baby David Ellison.
In April, she interviewed President Donald Trump for 60 Minutes, cornering him on the manifesto of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner alleged gunman, Cole Thomas Allen.
In the manifesto, Allen allegedly wrote, “I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.
“What’s your reaction to that?” she asked Trump, 80.
“Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” he said, before adding, “Yeah, he did write that. I‘m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
O’Donnell asked whether Trump believed the gunman was referring to him.
“I’m not a pedophile. You read that c--- from some sick person. I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated,” he said. ”Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things.”
