CBS News Is Trending Now: Watch Live Breaking Coverage & Top Stories Free

The network that gave America its first television newscast is leaning into another first—building a real-time, round-the-clock news service designed for screens of every size. Six months after CBS Evening News installed longtime political correspondent John Dickerson and veteran journalist Maurice DuBois as co-anchors—the first dual-host format in the program’s 84-year history—CBS News is reporting its strongest cross-platform audience growth since 2020. CBS News executives say the strategy is simple: meet viewers wherever they are, whenever they want. The 24/7 CBS News Streaming Network, available free on the CBS News app, Paramount+ and YouTube, has logged a 41 percent year-over-year jump in average minutes watched, fueled by live coverage of the summer weather disasters and the opening week of college football. In August alone, the channel’s YouTube feed surpassed 12 million unique viewers, edging ahead of every other U.S. broadcast network’s streaming outlet for the first time this year. Inside the Broadcast Center, producers have reshuffled resources to feed the digital beast. The flagship evening program now delivers a second, mobile-first cut within 30 minutes of the East Coast broadcast, optimized for vertical viewing. CBS Mornings, meanwhile, is taping extra interview segments exclusively for the app, while 60 Minutes reporters have started releasing mid-week “60 Minutes Now” explainers that run under five minutes. Why the urgency? Ad buyers are already mapping budgets for the 2026 midterm election cycle, and live news remains the last category where viewers reliably sit through commercials. By bolstering its free stream with familiar names, CBS hopes to lure incremental digital dollars without cannibalizing its linear footprint. Early signs are positive: Nielsen’s latest multiplatform report shows CBS Evening News up 6 percent among adults 25-54 on traditional TV since the anchor change, while its streaming simulcast is up 27 percent in the same demo. Dickerson and DuBois credit the numbers to a renewed focus on clarity over flash. “People are exhausted by the noise,” DuBois told affiliates in a recent call. “Our job is to slow the spin, add the facts and still get viewers to bed on time.” That ethos is resonating on social platforms, where clips from their sit-down with Federal Reserve Chair Lael Brainard generated 4.8 million TikTok views in 24 hours. The network is also retooling its local stations—now branded “CBS News [City]”—into digital bureaus that can break stories nationally within minutes. Chicago, Dallas and Miami already feed rolling coverage directly into the 24/7 stream; Los Angeles and San Francisco join the hub system this fall. Next on the roadmap: a personalized headline playlist that surfaces region-specific stories alongside national segments, and an interactive election results dashboard debuting during November’s off-year gubernatorial races. “We’re building a news experience that feels as smart on your watch as it does on your wall-mounted TV,” said Wendy McMahon, president of CBS News and Stations, in a staff memo obtained by our newsroom. For viewers, the takeaway is straightforward: if you have an internet connection, you now have instant access to every CBS News broadcast—live, on-demand and free. For competitors, the message is even clearer: the Tiffany Network is betting its future on being everywhere at once, and right now the gamble appears to be paying off.