Susan Zirinsky, president and senior executive producer of CBS News, is leaving her position, according to published reports. CBS News declined comment.
Zirinsky moved into the top spot at CBS News in January 2019, succeeding David Rhodes. She had been senior executive producer of 48 Hours, 48 Hours: NCIS and Whistleblower. She was also a producer of CBS breaking news specials.
Zirinsky, 69, began her career at CBS News in the Washington bureau two weeks after the Watergate break-in.
Also Read: Kimberly Godwin Named ABC News President
Her moves as president include installing Norah O’Donnell into the CBS Evening News anchor chair, shifting that newscast to a Washington base late in 2019, and focusing the news operation following the departures of several key executives.
Zirinsky entered the B+C Hall of Fame in 2019. At the time, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called her “a nuclear power plant of energy” who is “whip-smart and has an effervescent personality, and she is tough as titanium.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Zirinsky will enter “a wide-ranging production partnership” with CBS News parent ViacomCBS.
Kimberly Godwin, CBS News’ executive VP of news, Wednesday was named president of ABC News. Godwin succeeds James Goldston atop ABC News.
