CBS Betting on Gayle King and Norah O'Donnell’s Fierce Rivalry to Spike Morning Show Ratings, Insider Says

CBS News believes a perceived “feud” between co-anchor Gayle King, 71, and Norah O'Donnell, 52, who recently returned to the anchor desk, will boost ratings for CBS Mornings, according to one insider who spoke to RadarOnline.com.

O’Donnell rejoined King and Nate Burleson at the CBS Mornings anchor desk on Tuesday, September 8, seven years after she last co-anchored the morning broadcast.

The source claims CBS News chief Bari Weiss “is banking on the blood feud to bring in viewers.” The insider said both co-anchors “have baggage, ego and are insane competitors,” adding that Weiss “knows that will give people a reason to watch.”

According to the source, CBS Mornings has been third in the ratings for many years behind NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America, and Weiss views this pairing as a long-shot attempt to revive the show.

“Chemistry doesn’t mean you like each other,” the source added. “Sometimes the best television happens when two people are smiling for the cameras while secretly hoping to strangle each other.”

O’Donnell co-hosted CBS This Morning with King from 2012 through 2019 until she moved on to host the CBS Evening News. CBS announced on September 3 that O’Donnell would return to CBS Mornings, taking the chair vacated when Tony Dokoupil left his role as a co-host to become an anchor for the network’s evening news.

She is also a senior correspondent at CBS and a correspondent for 60 Minutes. In July, she launched a weekly podcast called “Healthful,” which focuses on women’s health issues.

“Gayle remembers exactly what it was like sharing that desk with Norah,” and “they aren’t pleasant memories,” according to the RadarOnline source.

An insider said O’Donnell and King are “enormously successful, enormously competitive” and “accustomed to being the biggest personality in the room.”

The insider noted putting these two back together again is “like throwing a match into a gasoline can.” Others told RadarOnline that O’Donnell’s return signaled a lack of confidence in King. Others said Weiss paired O’Donnell with King so the show would have Real Housewives-type conflict.

Reports of tension surfaced before the announcement. A source close to King told the New York Post in August that King was “not happy” with the potential for O’Donnell’s return, The Daily Beast reported.

An insider also told RadarOnline that CBS would benefit either way. “If Gayle and Norah become a powerhouse team, CBS wins. If they implode spectacularly, CBS still wins because people will tune in to watch it happen,” the source stated, adding, “Dysfunctional families get ratings.”

CBS describes the collaboration differently, and executives believe the new trio will help stabilize the program’s ratings, Variety reported.

“This is a homecoming for Norah,” Jon Tower, executive producer of CBS Mornings, said in a memo to his staff, adding that Gayle and Norah created “one of the most memorable partnerships in the history of morning news.”

“To put it simply, I can’t think of a team I’d rather watch navigate the news than Gayle, Nate and Norah,” Tower wrote.

King discussed her past with O’Donnell in reference to their reunion on O’Donnell’s first day back.

“Norah and I have history, so we are ready to go,” King said on air during CBS Mornings on Tuesday, September 8. She then commented on the old pictures shown during the program, joking, “We look cuter now."