CBS News And The Free Press Plan Series Of Town Halls And Debates; JD Vance, Sam Altman And Wes Moore Among Those Slated

CBS News and The Free Press are teaming for a series of town halls and debates in the new year, following an Erika Kirk event from last week.

The series will be called Things That Matter, with a town hall with Vice President JD Vance expected to air in early 2026. Other town halls will feature OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Maryland Governor Wes Moore.

Also planed are debates, including one featuring Isabel Brown and Harry Sisson focused on the question “Should Gen Z Believe in the American Dream?” Another will feature Ross Douhat and Steven Pinker on the question, “Does America Need God?” And Liz Plank and Allie Beth Stuckey will discuss, “Has Feminism Failed Women?”

Moderators are to be announced, but the audience events will be held across the country, per CBS News.

Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, moderated the Kirk town hall. On Saturday, it averaged 1.9 million viewers and 265,000 in the 25-54 demo. That was below the year-to-date average for the hour, as well as the numbers for Kirk’s guest co-host appearance on Fox News’ The Five earlier in the week. But CBS News said that it beat the network’s season-to-date performance in the 8 p.m. ET slot, while it was the network’s most watched interview ever on social media.

The debates and down halls are among the initiatives of Weiss since she was named to lead the network’s news division in October. In addition to hiring Weiss, Paramount’s new owners purchased her center-right site The Free Press, which now has a presence on the CBS News website.