CBS News President and CEO Wendy McMahon announced her resignation.

Wendy McMahon, President and Co-Head of CBS News and Stations.Credit :

Michele Crowe/CBS via Getty

CBS News President and CEO Wendy McMahon announced that she was leaving CBS News after four years with the network on May 19.

She shared the news in a memo sent to her colleagues, according to Deadline. “It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” she wrote in part. “It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”

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McMahon resigned in the midst of a $20 billion lawsuit from President Donald Trump, whose team is suing the network over a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. CBS and its parent company, Paramount Global, are considering settling the lawsuit as they hope to complete a merger with Skydance, for which they need regulatory approval from the Trump administration.

McMahon, who became the CEO in 2023, called it both “a privilege” and “challenging” to lead the network over the last few years.

She became the second CBS leader to leave the company in a month, as 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned in April.

So why are Wendy McMahon and other leaders leaving CBS News? Here’s what we know about her surprise exit.

Why is Wendy McMahon leaving CBS News?

Wendy McMahon ahead of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on April 30, 2022 in Washington, D.C.Mary Kouw/CBS via Getty

McMahon announced that she was stepping down as CEO and president of CBS News in a memo sent to colleagues and obtained by Deadline on May 19.

“Championing and supporting the journalism produced by the most amazing stations and bureaus in the world, celebrating the successes of our shows and our brands, elevating our stories and our people … It has been a privilege and joy,” she wrote in part.

McMahon called her time at CBS News “one of the most meaningful chapters in my career” and the “honor of a lifetime.” However, she also added that before resigning, she struggled to agree on how the company would move forward amidst the lawsuit with President Trump.

“At the same time, the past few months have been challenging,” she wrote. “It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”

Shortly afterwards, George Cheeks, the co-CEO of Paramount Global and president and CEO of CBS, wrote in a separate memo to staffers that McMahon would continue staying on as CEO for a few more weeks to “support the transition.”

“In a rapidly changing world, Wendy and her teams have worked diligently to articulate a vision and lay a foundation that adapts our news operations for the future,” Cheeks wrote in the memo obtained by Deadline. “This includes advancements in data journalism, community journalism, technology and centralizing editorial decisions to help teams move faster.”

McMahon was originally named as president and co-head of CBS News in 2021, along with Neeraj Khemlani. When he left in 2023, she became the sole president and CEO. According to Deadline, McMahon had been a “defender” of the news division, which includes 60 Minutes.

What is President Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News?

Donald Trump on ’60 Minutes’.CBSNews/60 Minutes ©2020CBS Broadcasting

McMahon resigned from CBS News in the midst of the company’s lawsuit filed by President Trump’s team.

His team has alleged that the 60 Minutes team edited former vice president, and then-presidential candidate, Harris’ answer in an October 2024 interview with Bill Whitaker. Trump and his team claimed that the network edited one of her answers to improve her chances of winning the 2024 Presidential Election and to “tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party,” according to Reuters.

Paramount has tried to dismiss the lawsuit and claimed that it is “without basis in law or fact.” However, in April, both Trump and Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, began mediation and were in talks to possibly settle the $20 billion lawsuit, according to The New York Times.

In addition to the company’s looming lawsuit with Trump, Paramount is also trying to complete an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. The acquisition would require regulatory approval from Trump and his administration.

In February 2025, The New York Times reported that Redstone did not explicitly connect Paramount’s lawsuit with Trump and the company’s hopeful merger with Skydance, but she did “underscore the fact that a pending multibillion-dollar lawsuit from the president made it difficult for Paramount to do business.”

Who else has left CBS?

Bill Owens during day two of Collision 2022 at Enercare Centre on June 22, 2022 in Toronto, Canada.Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty

McMahon stepped down from CBS News less than one month after 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned because of alleged difficulties maintaining journalistic independence, according to The New York Times.

On April 22, 2025, Owens sent a resignation memo to colleagues and expressed how it became “clear” to him that he “would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.”

The departure later made headlines when longtime anchor Scott Pelley announced the news in an unconventional message to viewers and told them how “no one here is happy” with the exit during the April 27 episode of 60 Minutes.

“He was our boss,” Pelley said. “He covered the world, covered combat, the White House. His was a quest to open minds, not close them. If you’ve ever worked hard for a boss because you admired him, then you understand what we’ve enjoyed here.”

Pelley also implied that coverage surrounding Trump’s second presidency was being influenced by the pending lawsuit.

“Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial. Lately the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way,” he said. “But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”

In addition to Owens’ resignation, CBS News also faced a shakeup when Norah O’Donnell stepped down as anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News after five years in January 2025. However, PEOPLE confirmed that O’Donnell was staying in the CBS family and transitioned to a new role as a CBS News senior correspondent.

“I love what I do, and I am so fortunate to work with the best journalists and people in the business,” O’Donnell wrote in her staff departure announcement in July 2024. “There’s so much work to be proud of! But I have spent 12 years in the anchor chair here at CBS News, tied to a daily broadcast and the rigors of a relentless news cycle. It’s time to do something different.”

O’Donnell was replaced by longtime CBS broadcasters John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois as co-anchors.