Susan Zirinsky will be the first woman to serve as president of CBS News

(Image credit: Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

published 7 January 2019

In March, Susan Zirinsky will replace David Rhodes as president of CBS News, becoming the first woman in network history to hold the position.

The first female network news president was Deborah Turness, who held the role at NBC from 2013 to 2017. In addition to being president of CBS News, Zirinsky will also serve as senior executive producer. Rhodes was brought to CBS News in 2011 by disgraced former network CEO Les Moonves.

Zirinsky has spent the last 20 years in charge of 48 Hours, and told the Los Angeles Times "being a producer is my oxygen and the core of who I am." Following the September ouster of 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager, who was accused of inappropriate workplace behavior, Zirinsky was the top choice to replace him, but higher-ups wanted her to have a larger role. Zirinsky told the Times she will ensure that CBS News is an "environment where there is transparency, where you can talk, where there are reactions based on actions."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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