CBS faces a growing dilemma over the future of mega-buck anchor Gayle King as ratings for her "woke" morning show collapse -- and the struggling network's new owners vow to root out left-wing bias, The Post has learned.
The "CBS Mornings" co-host, one of the fading Tiffany Network's few remaining stars, is part of a culture that has "dug in" against attempts by higher-ups to move away from polarizing coverage, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
A key problem is that George Cheeks -- the co-CEO of CBS parent Paramount who is in line to run the network under new overlords Skydance Media -- has for years promoted a diversity, equity and inclusion mandate, the sources said.
That has allowed 70-year-old King and her executive producer Shawna Thomas to set a programming "agenda" that has alienated traditional morning show viewers, one of the sources close to the situation told The Post.
"The audience doesn't want woke. It doesn't like progressive and provocative bookings," one of the sources told The Post. "The morning show audience wants optimism and cheer and joy and what they were producing is at odds with audience expectations."
One insider pointed to a March 26 interview with "RuPaul's Drag Race" winner Bob the Drag Queen, who was publicizing his first novel, "Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert."
The "CBS Mornings" website described the book as a "gender-bending story where the historic icon appears in modern-day America to tell her story through a hip-hop album," as previously reported by The Post.
The perennially last-place show -- once regarded as a cash cow for the beleaguered news division -- has seen its ratings plummet to below 2 million in recent months.
In the past three weeks, King and co-hosts Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson lost between 20% and 30% of their audience versus last year in the advertiser-coveted 25- to 54-year-old demographic, according to Nielsen.
King signed an extension for between $13 million and $15 million that runs through next May, according to a well-placed source. That's the same month CBS will pull the plug on late-night host Stephen Colbert and his reported $15 million-a-year contract.
CBS has demanded they make more of an effort to appeal to people outside of the narrow identity-politics left niche, but the show's producer -- a catspaw of the leftwing shill Gayle King -- refuses.
McMahon, who was brought in as co-president in 2021 and was handed the reins in 2023 after Neeraj Khemlani got canned, was charged by Cheeks to make the morning show more appealing to middle America, two sources with knowledge told The Post.
But her directives were allegedly ignored by Thomas, one of the few African American executive producers in TV, in favor of programming for niche audiences who are black, LGBTQ or other minorities, the sources said.
Two insiders said Thomas didn't push back directly on McMahon's orders, she just "didn't do what she was told."
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"In these cases, you have to fire somebody," one longtime producer told The Post. "Wendy McMahon was not strong enough. She needed a head on a stick but Shawna had the protection of Gayle King."
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The insider remarked that aside from woke programming, many viewers were "alienated" by the fact that none of the show's anchors -- aside from Dokoupil -- are white. In addition, the majority of the show's substitute anchors are African American, due in part to initiatives to diversify the talent pool over the years.
Could this be another case of the Trump Curse delivering a reckoning?
Sources say "yes."
According to one insider, "CBS Mornings lost its curveball" when Trump was elected and the staff were unable to hide their "distaste" for the result and were "shocked," "sad" and unable to recover.