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Report: CBS This Morning Executive Producer to Exit Network Following Charlie Rose Settlement

Ryan Kadro. Photo: John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images

Ryan Kadro, the executive producer of CBS This Morning, is said to be leaving the network, two sources at the company told Vulture. Kadro is said to be in conversations about his contract, and according to a CBS spokeswoman, “These conversations are unrelated to the settlement.” 

Kadro was named in the recently settled lawsuit filed by three former junior employees of the morning show, which Charlie Rose hosted until the Washington Post reported sexual harassment and assault allegations against him by eight women just over a year ago. The suit, filed in May, accused Kadro of knowing that Rose “had a history of sexual harassment” but encouraged one of them to work more closely with Rose at his company anyway.

One of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Wei, said in the suit that she had warned Kadro that Rose was paying a lot of attention to another plaintiff and said something along the lines of, “I’m telling you in case you have a lawsuit on your hands.” Wei also said in the suit that Kadro “kicked and shoved Ms. Wei’s chair with substantial force, startling, intimidating and scaring Ms. Wei.” CBS first moved to dismiss the case and then, in late November, settled it.

CBS’s morning show, currently co-hosted by Gayle King, Norah O’Donnell, and John Dickerson, last season lost viewers at a faster pace than its competitors, according to the Los Angeles Times. Kadro has been with the show since its relaunch in 2011, and was named executive producer in 2016.

The departure comes at an uncertain time for CBS. Its top boss, Les Moonves, was forced out in September after Ronan Farrow reported that a dozen women said Moonves harassed or assaulted them. Jeff Fager, a 60 Minutes executive producer who was accused in The New Yorker of groping employees, was fired days later after sending a threatening text message to a CBS reporter covering him. Successors have yet to be named. And, network president David Rhodes’s contract is up in February.

Report: CBS This Morning Executive Producer to Exit Network