Mary Hager to Exit CBS News’ Face the Nation After 35 Years
- The Scoop: Mary Hager, senior executive producer of CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, is leaving the network after more than three decades and exits the program in January.
- Tenure & Editorial Record: Hager joined the broadcast in 2009 as senior producer, ran it as executive producer from 2011 through 2025, and added the title of CBS News executive editor for politics in January 2022.
- Desk Strategy: Her exit lands as the Skydance-era news division begins the search for a successor at television’s longest-running Sunday public-affairs franchise, on air since November 7, 1954.
Mary Hager, senior executive producer of CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, is departing the network after 35 years, with her exit from the Sunday broadcast expected in January.
The move removes the steadiest hand from an Emmy-winning program CBS bills as the No. 1 Sunday public-affairs show, handing the incoming Skydance-led news division its first major editorial succession test.
A Producer Who Read the Audience Shift Before the Rest of the Room
Hager’s fingerprints sit on a decade of structural change at the broadcast. She joined Face the Nation in 2009 as a senior producer, took the executive producer chair in 2011, and held it through 2025 before moving to the senior executive producer title.
Her clearest strategic bet was distribution. Hager has described watching the program’s audience split shift from roughly 20 percent digital and 80 percent linear at the start of her run to an even split in recent years.
“I’ve been executive producer of ‘Face the Nation’ for coming up on 10 years now, and when I started, our digital to linear proportions were probably 20 to 80.”, Mary Hager
That rebalancing shaped how the show packages its Sunday interviews, pushing segments to online audiences hours before the 10:30 a.m. Eastern broadcast window. It also hardened the program against the slow erosion of linear news viewership that has reshaped every morning and Sunday franchise.
Hager’s second portfolio carried equal weight. As CBS News executive editor for politics since January 2022, she oversaw campaign coverage, conventions, and election-night operations across the entire network, not just one hour on Sundays.
Margaret Brennan Stays in the Chair as CBS Hunts a Successor
Margaret Brennan remains moderator, a pairing that has anchored the program through a turbulent stretch for political journalism. Her framing of the show’s purpose has been consistent and unapologetic.
“Face the Nation has long been the place that viewers across the country rely on to make sense of it all by cutting through the noise to break down what matters and how it affects our daily lives.”, Margaret Brennan
Hager’s tenure also spanned the tenures of Bob Schieffer and John Dickerson in the moderator chair, giving her a hand in three distinct eras of the broadcast’s on-air identity. Replacing that institutional memory is not a one-candidate hire.
The calendar gives management room to work. A January handoff lands well before the next presidential primary cycle heats up, allowing a new producer to settle into the booking rhythm and election infrastructure before the stakes spike.
No successor has been publicly named, and CBS declined to make executives available for comment on the transition. Hager could not be reached for immediate comment.
A 1954 Franchise Enters the Skydance Era Without Its Longest-Serving Architect
Face the Nation debuted on November 7, 1954, and has outlasted nearly every competitor in the Sunday public-affairs lane. That longevity is precisely why the producer chair carries outsized weight inside CBS News.
The program’s standing as the top-rated Sunday show is a revenue asset as much as a prestige one, feeding affiliate relations, advertising inventory, and the network’s political-news brand. A leadership gap at the top of that hour is felt across the division.
The timing compounds the stakes. Skydance’s stewardship of CBS News is still taking shape, and the search for Hager’s replacement will be read internally as an early signal of how the new ownership wants the political desk run.
For a franchise that has survived thirteen presidential elections, the transition is manageable. For a news division mid-ownership change, the hire is a statement. Track the succession and the broader executive churn across our trade entertainment wire desk.
Ankit Jaiswal is the Chief Author, covering Indian cinema and OTT releases with honest, no-filler criticism. An SEO strategist by background, he brings a research-driven approach to film writing, cutting through hype to tell you exactly what's worth your time.
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