At the end of her heavily promoted Saturday night town hall with Erika Kirk, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss promised viewers that there would be “many more conversations like this in the weeks and months ahead” on the network.
“So stay tuned. More town halls, more debates, more talking about the things that matter,” the anti-woke former New York Times op-ed writer declared.
However, based on the soft ratings from the Kirk event, one wonders just how much appetite the network’s leadership will continue to have for Weiss-led television specials.
According to early numbers from Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement, the one-hour CBS News town hall – which aired on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET – drew 1.548 million total viewers and 237,000 in the coveted advertising demographic of viewers aged 25 to 54. Those numbers rose to 1.867 million viewers overall 265,000 in the advertising demo when Nielsen released its final numbers Tuesday afternoon.
Based on Nielsen’s final ratings, the Erika Kirk sitdown declined 11 percent in total viewership compared to the network’s standard programming in that time slot year to date – and was down 41 percent in the key demo.
A network source, however, noted that season-to-date the town hall was actually up compared to the network’s programming in recent weeks, showing an increase of 16 percent in total viewers and 10 percent in the key demo based on Nielsen’s preliminary numbers. The source also pointed out that the Weiss-Kirk event was up in both metrics compared to last week’s programming. The current television season, meanwhile, started in late September.
In a press release on Tuesday afternoon, CBS said that the town hall broadcast outpaced the the network’s season-to-date performance in the time slot by 32 percent in total viewership and 19 percent in the key demo.
Additionally, the source stated that the numbers that show the Kirk town hall down massively year-to-date compared to other CBS programming in the same time slot likely included NCAA tournament basketball games from March and April, adding that it isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison to news programming.
While Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET is one of the lowest-watched primetime hours on broadcast television, CBS has still generally averaged at least 2 million viewers during that hour over the past 12 months. According to Nielsen, the network has attracted 2.109 million viewers and 449,000 in the 25-54 demographic in that time slot throughout 2025.
Making the low viewership for the Erika Kirk town hall even more striking is that CBS pulled in a large audience for the annual Army-Navy game that afternoon, drawing 7.3 million viewers per Nielsen’s early measurement. The post-game show, which served as a lead-in for the Kirk-Weiss chat, attracted a viewership of 3.5 million and 901,000 in the advertising demo, according to Nielsen.
Online, the interview didn’t attract all that much interest either, despite the social media hype the network put behind it, along with preview airings on CBS Mornings and multiple digital writeups of the town hall – including a listicle titled “7 highlights from Erika Kirk's CBS News town hall.”
As of publication, the video of the event has tallied just 105,000 views on CBS News’ YouTube channel – which boasts nearly 7 million subscribers. The network source, however, noted that posts related to the town hall pulled in a total of 185 million views across CBS News social platforms.
Notably, the town hall with Kirk – the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk – aired after Kirk had made multiple appearances on Fox News to promote her deceased husband’s newest book.
On top of that, Kirk – who now leads Turning Point USA, the right-wing youth organization her late spouse co-founded – used those Fox News spots to first take aim at far-right provocateur Candace Owens for peddling conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s death.
Owens, a one-time close friend of Charlie Kirk’s and a former TPUSA communications director, has speculated that he was killed due to his supposed shifting views on Israel and that TPUSA staffers may have been involved in his assassination. After Erika Kirk publicly urged her to stop, prompting Owens to criticize her in return, the two met “privately” to hash out their differences on Monday.
For the most part, Kirk’s appearances on Fox News – which caters to a conservative audience – outdrew the CBS town hall. For instance, her guest hosting spot on the late afternoon panel show The Five pulled in 3.3 million viewers, while even her co-hosting appearance on midday roundtable program Outnumbered averaged a viewership of 1.6 million.
By the time the CBS town hall – which was taped three days prior – aired on Saturday night, Kirk had made six different appearances on the conservative cable giant, along with a headlining spot at the New York Times DealBook conference.
Since Paramount chief David Ellison installed her to lead the newsroom in October, complete with a mandate to hold “both American political parties to equal scrutiny” while reshaping CBS News’ coverage, Weiss – who describes herself as a “radical centrist” – has been looking to shake things up at the network. Her efforts, however, have so far been met with criticism from much of the staff.
This also included her decision to step in as moderator for this town hall, which the network hyped as “Kirk fielding questions from young evangelicals, prominent religious leaders and figures across the political spectrum” and a chance to “focus on our country’s political divide – and how we can find our way out.”
CBS News employees who spoke with The Independent said Weiss serving as moderator, an unusual move for most newsroom executives, was “embarrassing” and “revealed that all she really wants is to be on TV herself.”
“It doesn’t get more toe-curling than this,” one staffer said. “David Ellison must be mortified by his $150 million investment in someone who’s so quickly revealed themselves to be the most shallow, least interesting person in TV news.”
Meanwhile, Variety reported that blue-chip advertisers appeared wary of airing their commercials during Weiss’ special, noting that CBS News hasn’t typically hosted “town halls or debates on trending issues or with newsmakers.” Throughout the broadcast, commercial airtime was filled by direct-response advertisers, such as the dietary supplement SuperBeets.
The following hour, though, when a rerun of the investigative crime series 48 Hours aired, larger companies like Procter & Gamble and Amazon provided ads.
In the end, reviews for Weiss’ turn as a broadcast network moderator were less than kind.
“The broadcast was entirely deferential and incurious. Charlie Kirk’s critics were painted in broad strokes as badly motivated,” MS NOW opinion editor Anthony Fisher noted, adding: “The event revealed next to nothing about Erika Kirk that we didn’t know before. It wasn’t journalism, it was public relations.”
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