JOSSIP REPORTS : BREAKING
Might Katie Couric’s woes about to take a turn for the better? Or the worse? SO HARD TO TELL!
But one big rumor we are hearing is that executive producer Rick Kaplan, who was brought in to replace Rome Hartman this time last year, is being shown the door at the CBS Evening News. Oh, and The Early Show, where he’s interim executive producer.
We’re told by an insider that he’s being pushed out from his posts — and will hold a staff meeting on Friday, at 9am in the GM studio, where he’ll at least tell the staffers he’s about to embark on a two-week vacation, but it’s unclear whether he’ll share with them that the vacation is actually a quiet means of exiting. “I’m sure he won’t say anything about not returning,” says a source.
Keep in mind: He’ll be making his exit during sweeps. So whether he tells his staff the real news or not, they can only assume that the boss man is a goner. After all, under predecessor Shelley Ross, you didn’t take time off unless you called in dead.
Because Kaplan, helming two broadcasts, wanted more cash, and CBS News chief Sean McManus wasn’t willing to give him any. The duo met two or three weeks ago, we’re told, and the conversation was described to us as a “huge fight.”
It’s unclear, though expected, that Katie Couric is abreast of the news. And we can only assume Early Show anchor Julie Chen, who’s also the wife of CBS chief Les Moonves, knew all this ahead of time.
It’s certainly worth noting CBS News is refuting much of this. Spokeswoman Kelly Halyard insists: “Sean McManus asked Rick to consider taking some time off to rest after working two jobs for the past 11 weeks. After his week off, Kaplan will transition back into his full-time role as the executive producer of the CBS Evening News and CBS News’ election coverage.”
(That statement more than suggests Rick is gone from The Early Show, though to be fair, from the beginning it was only expected that he’d be on the job a few weeks until somebody new was named.)
Counters our source: “Total bunk.” Our insider suspects this to be PR spin to keep Katie’s situation from looking any worse. If Rick actually does return to the Evening News, “he won’t be there long. They are just spinning.”
Meanwhile, word has it that Early Show senior producer David Shenfeld – who, we’re told, “lost all his power” to Laurye Blackford – just stopped showing up to work, and hasn’t been in the office since Sunday, thanks to being “so fed up and frustrated.”
So The Early Show is without an EP, one of its senior producers, and the score of other staffers who quit in disgust, were fired as part of a regime change, or who were let go as part of CBS’s general restructuring/mass axing. And whether Kaplan does or doesn’t return, in earnest, to the Evening News, it’d be hard to argue that the show isn’t fragile.
Editorial Director
has this guy EVER kept a job for longer than a year?
Shelley Ross was CBS’s “9-11.” Ross caused such psychological shock waves that people haven’t stabilized yet. Seriously, they all need a week with Dr. Phil….or an emergency disaster intervention team, so they can all regroup and get a grip.
It’s really sad to see so much continued turmoil that Ross left behind in a wake that is not seeming to
subside.
Maybe CBS should show re runs while giving everyone a month off. Who would really know?
Katie Couric Tax Warrant
www.webofdeception.com
Just in time to run Hillary’s campaign (into the ground like everything else he touches)?
Rick’s mojo has been jinxed ever since he sold mentor Jack Smith down river during CNN’s Tailwind debacle.
(Note: Smith and producer April Oliver forced CNN to $$$$$ettle their lawsuits.)
“Tailwind Rick” Kaplan is now a part of CBS’s debacle. He ran CNN into the ground, MSNBC and now this. He is an over-rated self-promoting blow-hard who is simply INCOMPETENT! How can anyone buy into this retread? Of all his faults however, he is adept at fingerpointing!