‘CBS Evening News Plus’ brings extended coverage, unique segments

After launching a new format and look for “CBS Evening News” Jan. 27, 2025, the network debuted the additional 30-minute companion broadcast Feb. 10, 2025.

“CBS Evening News Plus” is designed to offer additional stories, reporting and analysis than its bigger sibling. Select CBS-owned stations air the broadcast on their linear channels immediately following the standard “CBS Evening News,” and it is also available to stream on CBS News 24/7 to anyone with access to that feed.

The broadcast originates from Studio 47, just like the flagship one, though it has some distinct elements.

First, “Plus” has opted to use a single anchor format. 

That anchor also tends to stand more, including at the top of the broadcast. There is also a handheld camera used during many of these shots, though the robotic cameras on peds are still used.

The broadcast also makes use of the camera left side of the LED volume CBS installed in Studio 47 for “Evening.” Like the rest of the volume, “Plus” uses virtual set extensions on this wall in conjunction with the same look used during the non-“Plus” version.

Instead of just relying on a simulated landscape video wall or cityscape background here, however, the primary element is a simulated black panel that appears to have the CBS eye “carved” into it, with the “Plus” version of the broadcast’s logo in the middle.

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It’s accented with a vertical blue lighting effect on the sides and appears to be meant more to represent a physical, solid wall panel as opposed to a window or video screen.

Another key difference is that “Plus” has a brief tease segment at the top of the broadcast followed by an abbreviated, announcer-less version of the open and then a “headlines” segment handled as a voiceover.

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While the teases at the beginning of the broadcast include on-screen headline text and graphic accents, the headline segment is devoid of any banners, relying only on video and other imagery with a brief, but rather hard to read, circular animation between stories with the “Headlines” label. 

For the top story on “Plus,” anchor John Dickerson remains in his camera right chair with Maurice DuBois’ chair removed. The shot is still framed similar to a two-shot, which allows for a more traditional topical graphic with text headline to appear camera left of Dickerson, a look that is widely used in TV news today.

This notably replaces the cut-to-wide shot format with the camera right side of the volume used to showcase a text headline that “Evening” does during its top story and many other segments.

“Plus” does still use that wall to toss to remote reports, though, at least on debut day, the simulated window camera left was not replaced by a topical look like on the flagship. Instead, a skyline with palm trees was used, which was a bit of an odd switch after just seeing the White House behind Dickerson.

“Plus” also includes a segment named, quite unimaginatively, “The Interview,” which is exactly what it sounds like, a conversation between the anchor and some relevant to the day’s selected topic. On debut day, this was pre-taped and likely edited down, withe guest seated far camera right at the anchor desk.

Another distinct segment in “Plus” is titled “In Depth,” which, not surprisingly, is designed to take a deeper look at a topic. 

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Incidentally, “NBC Nightly News” used the “In Depth” branding in the past to brand a block of the broadcast that had a similar mission. 

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The debut edition of “Plus” didn’t use a traditional kicker package, but instead used a voiceover from Dickerson to note how an astronaut was spotted wearing a “Believe” sticker inspired by the Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” that was used to tie into the idea of belief and why astronauts are so inspirational to many.