Scott Pelley Out As 'CBS Evening News' Anchor Due To Poor Ratings, Sources Say

Former Managing Editor and anchor of “CBS Evening News” Scott Pelley is leaving his role and will return to CBS’ “60 Minutes” full time, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed on Tuesday.

The move was first reported by Page Six and the sources said it was in the works for some time as Pelley was struggling to generate ratings for the show.

One of the sources said: “[Pelley] was pushed out of the ‘Evening News.’ It’s been coming for a long time. This could have been handled better — [Pelley] is away on a story, and they’re cleaning out his office. It’s not the correct way to treat the face of CBS news.”

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Page Six reported Pelley’s office was being cleared out although he was not present as he was on an assignment for the network’s news magazine “60 Minutes.”

Insiders from the network told Page Six CBS News President David Rhodes “is making [Pelley] move to ‘60 Minutes,’ ” and that the pair “don’t get on.”

The network has not yet commented on the issue. However, they are expected to make a formal announcement on Wednesday.

Pelley succeeded Katie Couric in June 2011 and remained the show’s anchor. He has been with CBS News since 1989 and worked as a “60 Minutes” correspondent since 2004. Sources did not name any replacement yet, however Anthony Mason, a CBS News senior national correspondent who had been filling in for the veteran anchor while he was on assignment, will likely be the one to host “CBS Evening News” until the network names a permanent replacement.

There are no obvious replacements to Pelley inside the network, however, the name that came up the most in the past few months was that of Norah O’Donnell, the co-anchor of “CBS This Morning” along with Charlie Rose and Gayle King. The program has given CBS its best morning ratings in 29 years and became a major profit center for the network.

Pelley’s ratings had been low for a considerable amount of time. He mainly built on the audience he had inherited from Couric, but his show was still behind “NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt” and “ABC World News Tonight With David Muir” throughout its run. The show’s ratings had been a source of frustration for executives at the network and there was speculation Pelley could soon be replaced.

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Page Six had earlier reported in December that Pelley would step down from his role, however the network denied it saying “There’s no truth to this.”

Evening news programs were long considered to be the major broadcasts for network news, however the infiltration of live news on demand through the internet and 24-hour cable news networks undermined their importance and the audience count went down in the recent years. According to Los Angeles Times, the May sweeps ratings period measured by Nielsen showed Pelley’s broadcast averaged 6.1 million, behind the 7.59 million average of “ABC World News” and 7.56 million of “NBC Nightly News.”