Two senior producers are departing CBS News' flagship Sunday political program, Face the Nation, marking a major behind-the-scenes leadership transition at the network. Senior executive producer Mary Hager is stepping down after 35 years at CBS News, while executive producer Anne Hsu is relocating to the network's Hong Kong bureau. The simultaneous exits leave the top-rated Sunday public affairs broadcast without an immediate successor in its top control room posts as the network navigates broader corporate restructuring.

The personnel changes, first disclosed by the media industry newsletter Status on November 11, 2026, arrive alongside reports that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss privately weighed replacing moderator Margaret Brennan earlier in 2026. While that anchor change never materialized, the departure of the program's top two production leaders creates an opening for network management to reshape the broadcast's leadership structure heading into 2027.

Details of the Production Leadership Exits

Hager informed her colleagues on Wednesday, November 11, that her time at the network was coming to an end, a move intended to give the Skydance-led news division time to search for a replacement.

Industry outlets offer slightly differing timelines and characterizations of her departure. According to Variety, which cited two people familiar with the matter, Hager is retiring from the program in January 2027. Deadline also reported a January departure after 35 years at the network, while other reports quoted a CBS News insider stating Hager had been planning to retire at the end of the year after informing leadership of her intent over the summer.

Complicating the succession plan is the departure of Hsu, who was named executive producer of Face the Nation in 2025. Rather than leaving the company, Hsu is transferring to CBS News' bureau in Hong Kong. Because Hsu was the natural second-in-command on the broadcast, her reassignment leaves no obvious internal successor to take over Hager's day-to-day duties.

CBS News declined to make executives available for comment regarding the transition, and the network has not yet announced who will fill either production role or whether Hager's dual responsibilities will be separated.

Reports Surround Bari Weiss and Margaret Brennan

The production turnover has drawn heightened scrutiny due to concurrent reporting regarding the show's on-air leadership. According to TV Insider, Oliver Darcy's Status newsletter reported that Weiss, the co-founder of The Free Press who serves as CBS News editor-in-chief, privately considered replacing Brennan as moderator earlier in 2026. Although the contemplated anchor change never happened, industry observers noted that the exit of both Hager and Hsu gives Weiss an opportunity to install new leadership at the Sunday broadcast.

However, a CBS News insider pushed back strongly against suggestions that the producer exits were connected to off-camera friction or an effort by Weiss to overhaul the program.

Speaking to the New York Post, as cited by Yahoo Entertainment, the insider maintained that Hager had discussed her retirement plans with colleagues for some time and described her as a "beloved figure whose departure will be felt by colleagues." The source dismissed claims of backstage disputes and pointed to the broadcast's status as the No. 1 Sunday public affairs program, though the insider declined to speculate on Brennan's long-term future with the show or the network.

Brennan has been a fixture at CBS News since joining the network in July 2012, following stints as a producer and correspondent at CNBC and an anchor at Bloomberg Television. Based in Washington, she covered both the Obama and Trump administrations before being named the 10th moderator of Face the Nation in February 2018.

She became only the second woman to host the broadcast, following Lesley Stahl's tenure from 1983 to 1991, and co-moderated the CBS 2024 United States vice presidential debate.

Three Decades of Political Coverage and Ratings Strength

Hager's exit closes a 35-year chapter at CBS News that began in 1991 when she joined the network's political unit as a researcher. Following early assignments on Capitol Hill, in the Atlanta bureau, and as a producer on CBS Evening News, she spent more than 15 years working as the producer for chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer. She helped run or led Face the Nation since 2011—serving as senior producer, executive producer from 2011 to 2025, and subsequently senior executive producer—guiding the broadcast across the tenures of moderators Schieffer, John Dickerson, and Brennan.

Since 2022, she also held the title of executive editor of politics for CBS News, having covered nearly every presidential campaign, convention, and election night over the past 30 years.

During her tenure, Hager steered the program away from partisan cable-style debates toward substantive interviews. "I think Sunday shows are getting further away from spin, and I think we are still doing a better job at kind of what we have always been trying to focus on — what is important for viewers, what the takeaways are, what they can learn, as opposed to putting the boxing gloves on and yelling back and forth," Hager told Variety in 2019.

During the coronavirus pandemic, while Brennan was on maternity leave and Dickerson filled in, Hager pivoted the show toward public health coverage by booking former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb so frequently that he became one of the most regular non-journalist guests in the show's history, trailing only Senator John McCain in overall appearances at the time.

The leadership changes occur at a moment of commercial stability for the broadcast, even as parent company Skydance offers buyouts across Paramount and Warner Bros to trim corporate costs. Season-to-date as of November 8, 2026, Face the Nation has drawn more total viewers than rival broadcasts Meet the Press on NBC and This Week on ABC. While overall viewership has dipped slightly compared to the prior television season, the CBS broadcast recorded a surge among viewers aged 26 to 54, the key demographic prized by news advertisers.

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