Bari Weiss, the newly installed editor in chief for CBS News, will interview Erika Kirk, the widow of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in a network prime time special on Dec. 13.
The network announced Thursday that Weiss will conduct the taped special called “A Town Hall with Erika Kirk” in front of an invited audience at a venue in New York. It will be the first time Weiss appears on the CBS broadcast network in her new role.
It’s highly unusual, but not unprecedented, for a network TV news executive to appear in front of the camera. Tim Russert was an executive at NBC News before he became moderator at “Meet the Press.”
Weiss has conducted numerous video interviews shown on the Free Press, the digital news platform she co-founded that was acquired by Paramount as part of the deal that brought her to CBS News.
Weiss, a political centrist highly critical of “woke” policies, was brought to CBS News by Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison. He promised she would provide “a relentless commitment to amplifying voices from all corners of the spectrum.”
Erika Kirk has done only one other sit-down interview for television since her husband’s death on Sept 10 — an hourlong chat on the Fox News program “Jesse Watters Primetime.” She will make several appearances on Fox News next week before the CBS interview to promote Charlie Kirk’s new book.
Kirk is the chairman and chief executive of the organization Turning Point USA, which was founded by her late husband. Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking before a crowd on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
The network said the program will feature Kirk “fielding questions from young evangelicals, prominent religious leaders, and figures across the political spectrum. The conversation will also focus on our country’s political divide — and how we can find our way out.”
