CBS News Nationwide

CBS News Nationwide is an upcoming American nightly television news program airing on The CW, and in markets where CBS owns a television station, simulcasted on CBSN Local. Co produced by CBS News and CBS Television Stations, and broadcasted live from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, the hour-long program utilizes the journalistic resources of the 41 CBS television news operations throughout the United States that are owned and operated under the show's co producer, CBS Television Stations. Nationwide also draws upon CBS' other affiliated stations to gather stories to air for the broadcast. The program is designed as a local complimentary newscast to CBS News' own output, airing directly after the CBS Evening News, and as such, the show's format competes against Nexstar's NewsNation and Sinclair's The National Desk.

Nationwide is slated to air mainly on Mondays to Fridays from 7:00pm to 8:00pm, as a lead in to The CW's primetime programming. The program combines original reporting from national correspondents and repackaged content from local affiliated CBS stations, with stories from owned stations being the basis of the telecast.

Its launch will hold the distinction of being the first and only national news program to air on The CW, as the network has never traditionally aired them.

Development
Development of CBS News Nationwide began in March 2021, following the respective launches of the aforementioned NewsNation (both the network and its cable network) and The National Desk, two programs which relied on the station groups of Sinclair and Nexstar for its coverage.

Aided by the development of Nationwide would be a major growth in CBS's owned television station presence, due in part to its parent company Illustrious divesting most of its non CBS stations, all of which were under Illustrious Broadcasting, the former broadcasting wing of Illustrious which consisted of several station groups Illustrious had acquired or inherited, including Hearst Television, Cox Media Group, Scripps, Meredith, and Tegna. The divestments were made due to a change in strategy at the company in which its broadcasting efforts would now be spearheaded by CBS, as it had recently acquired ViacomCBS, and therefore CBS and its television stations. Following the divestitures and the transfer of those stations into CBSTS, CBS would pick up several key stations in markets such as Seattle, Nashville, St. Louis (where it would reacquire its owned and operated station in the market), Houston, Tampa, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and San Diego, among others. CBS would also individually acquire stations, such as WDJT in Milwaukee. CBS would ultimately grow its O&O portfolio from 14 to 41.

Unlike most CBS News produced programs, CBS' sister network, The CW, would serve as the main network for the broadcast. The show would be rebroadcast nationally on CBS News' digital streaming network, CBSN, the newly launched CBS Headline News, and locally on CBSN Local. The decision to utilize The CW was met with mixed reactions, with many being skeptical that a national newscast would work for the network and CBS News. Prior to the network's primetime schedule, affiliates would usually air syndicated or local programming to fill its schedule, with the addition of Nationwide, the programming which aired in the 7-8pm time slot would most likely be displaced and would have to move to a later or earlier time, or be entirely dropped, causing affiliates to potentially lose ad revenue.

It didn't help that CBS, via ViacomCBS Media Distribution, is a major supplier of syndicated programming, including Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, and Hot Bench, among others. Most of CBS' key syndicated programming often airs at the same time as Nationwide would, creating even more competition, and potentially cutting into the audiences for many of the programs distributed and produced by CBS for syndication. Overall, there were fears that Nexstar and Sinclair, two of the biggest station ownership groups in the nation (and ownership of several key affiliates for both CBS and The CW), would simply preempt or even flat out refuse any of its CW affiliated stations to carry the newscast, and would deny CBS the opportunity to work with its CBS affiliated stations to gather stories for the program, instead opting to reserve them for NewsNation or TND. Nevertheless, the program was approved by The CW's co owner, WarnerMedia.