Following the Bari Weiss-moderated sitdown with Erika Kirk that was a massive ratings flop, CBS News has doubled down on the format and is launching a new town hall series in partnership with Weiss’ “anti-woke” digital media outlet that the network’s parent company recently purchased.
According to the network’s press release, the series of town halls and debates will be called Things That Matter, and the first participant will be Vice President JD Vance. According to a network source, the Vance interview will air in early 2026, with the venue and date to be determined.
“We live in a divided country. A country where many cannot talk to those with whom they disagree. Where people can’t speak across the political divide – or even sometimes across the kitchen table,” the network said Thursday. “THINGS THAT MATTER aims to change that.”
Sponsored by Bank of America and presented by both CBS News and The Free Press, the series will also feature OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. The network stated that the events will “be held across the country, in front of audiences who have a stake in the topics under discussion.”
The Independent has learned that other CBS News moderators will also host the town halls, meaning it will not just be limited to Weiss.
Based on the press release, the town halls will focus on religion, feminism, capitalism, artificial intelligence and the state of politics. “The debates echo the country’s 250th anniversary, showing how the power of America’s earliest principles – civil, substantive discussion, free of rancor – have immense value today,” CBS News declared.
Weiss, who was named CBS News editor-in-chief in October by Paramount chair David Ellison, teased at the end of her town hall with Kirk that CBS News would be airing similar specials in the near future. “So stay tuned. More town halls, more debates, more talking about the things that matter,” she remarked.
Even before to the much-hyped Kirk broadcast, which was touted by the network as an opportunity to explore “life, loss, and the state of political discourse” with the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Weiss had publicly expressed a desire to use on-air debates to “speak for the 75 percent for the people that are on the center left and the center right.”The example she used at that time to make her point, a Free Press debate between former Jeffrey Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz and ex-NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, sparked mockery after she claimed it showed that “centrist news” could be “explicitly charismatic.”
Weiss, whom staffers called “shallow” and desperate to be on TV for booking herself as the moderator of the Kirk town hall, insisted that Things That Matter will appeal to the bulk of Americans in a Thursday statement.
“We believe that the vast majority of Americans crave honest conversation and civil, passionate debate,” she said. “This series is for them. In a moment in which people believe that truth is whatever they are served on their social media feed, we can think of nothing more important than insisting that the only way to get to the truth is by speaking to one another.”
The relative lack of interest in Saturday’s heavily promoted Kirk town hall, however, would indicate that the “vast majority of Americans” may actually not be craving what Weiss is selling.
Despite following an Army-Navy game that pulled in 7.3 million viewers, the Weiss-Kirk special averaged 1.867 million total viewers and 265,000 in the coveted advertising demographic of adults aged 25 to 54.
While CBS News has spun the town hall as a “successful” ratings win, noting that it “drove double-digit ratings increases in its time slot” compared to recent weeks and was its “most-watched interview ever on social media,” those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Though Saturday nights at 8 p.m. ET are typically among the lowest-rated primetime hours on broadcast television, CBS has generally drawn more than 2 million viewers in that time slot this year. In fact, according to Nielsen, the network has averaged 2.109 million viewers and 449,000 in the 25-54 demographic in that hour throughout 2025, representing a 41 percent drop in the key demo and an 11 percent decline in total viewership for the Kirk town hall.
On top of that, though CBS News has nearly 7 million subscribers to its YouTube channel, the streamed version of the event and an extended episode have barely attracted a combined 200,000 views over the past few days.
“It’s pretty rich they’re calling this THINGS THAT MATTER. To whom exactly? It should really be called, things Bari Weiss wants to lecture America about,” one CBS News staffer told The Independent. “And after the first so-called Town Hall, it’s pretty clear America doesn’t want to be lectured at by Bari Weiss.”
Though the town hall series is the brainchild of Weiss and is co-presented by The Free Press, she will not be the only moderator of the events, as other CBS News on-air personalities will also host the specials.
Meanwhile, in recent days, Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski haven’t really spoken to network employees about the Kirk town hall. Sources told The Independent that the pair didn’t address the event during Monday morning’s editorial meeting.
“Clearly not a chest-thumping victory,” one staffer noted, while Puck’s Dylan Byers reported that Weiss had “even told her fellow executives that there was no need to linger on it.” At the same time, based on Thursday’s announcement, Weiss and the network are clearly committed to the format.
Amid the teeth-gnashing over the soft reception for Weiss’ on-air CBS debut, the top editor has also delayed a “loosely planned internal town hall until January.” As Status News noted, that “decision came just as the network was grappling with underwhelming ratings for a broadcast it had heavily promoted as a signal of its new editorial direction.”
Elsewhere this week, Weiss also announced members of her new executive team, which will include Sam Siegel as chief operating officer and Sophia Efthimiatou as senior vice president of talent and brand strategy.
She also revealed that she had created an editorial masthead, making it official that former Wall Street Journal editor Charles Forelle is now managing editor, while her close pal Adam Rubenstein will serve as CBS News deputy editor – the same role he holds at The Free Press.
Additionally, according to Byers, Weiss is also planning to sign a bevy of new on-air contributors, which will include “former national security advisor H.R. McMaster, ex-Marine Elliot Ackerman, cultural analyst Casey Lewis, chef and food writer Clare de Boer, and Puck’s own Lauren Sherman.”
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