In the early days of CBS News, Edward R. Murrow led programs like Person to Person and See It Now from CBS’ Manhattan studios in Grand Central Terminal.
The network would eventually depart Grand Central for the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th street (what was once the CBS space in the train terminal is now a tennis club), but the network’s history in the building is the stuff of news lore.
So it makes some level of sense that when CBS News was contemplating where to stage a correspondent photo for its rebooted 60 Minutes, it would take the elevator downstairs to the Terminal’s basement, turning the gilded dining room of the Grand Central Oyster Bar into its studio.
CBS News, led by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, needs the new 60 Minutes to work. Its success or its failure could define her tenure at the network.
The overhaul was the talk of the business earlier this summer, with its EP and a slew of senior producers exiting, and high-profile correspondents choosing to exit (Anderson Cooper) or unceremoniously shown the door (Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega).
