Yesterday, ViacomCBS announced that award-winning producer and program executive Shawna Thomas, has been named executive producer at CBS This Morning. Thomas is slated to begin her new assignment at CBS News’ flagship morning news broadcast on Monday, February 1.
“When CBS News decided to bring the news back to the mornings many years ago, I took note and cheered them on for not trying to just copy the other network morning shows. I am excited to join a show that is determined to inform the audience without pandering to them and use those precious two hours, as well as unlimited time online, to expand the creative storytelling that the journalists of CBS News are already famous for,” Thomas said in a statement.
Thomas joins CBS News from Quibi, where she was a content development executive. She worked on short-form news programming from CBS News, NBC News, and BBC News for the mobile video platform. Her work has earned her four Emmy awards, a Peabody, a Gracie Award, and two Scripps Howard honors.
“Shawna Thomas is one of the top news minds in our field,” said Susan Zirinsky, president and senior executive producer of CBS News. “She’s a hands-on storyteller, accomplished journalist, and an inspiring leader. Shawna has consistently embraced new ways and platforms to deliver high-quality journalism to audiences everywhere. She has the passion and experience to take CBS This Morning to the next level during these transformational times.”
Prior to Quibi, Thomas spent three years at Vice News as the Washington, D.C., bureau chief had also worked at NBC News for just over a decade as a senior producer at the long-running “Meet the Press,” where she oversaw the broadcast’s digital profile and helped remake the show when Chuck Todd took over as moderator.
Between 2011 and 2014, she traveled the world covering former President Barack Obama for NBC News. Earlier, she was a Capitol Hill producer for the network. During her tenure at NBC News, Thomas was sent on assignments that included political convention coverage, ziplining in Alaska, and detainee trials at Guantanamo Bay all while making time to try to get to a karaoke bar if time and scheduling allowed. She began her career at NBC as a news associate in 2006.
Thomas earned her bachelor’s degree in political communication from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Southern California.