Gayle King, Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez largely succeeded in making themselves the most hated women in America during the week of April 14, when they and King’s “CBS Mornings” show made a faux-female empowerment spectacle out of their quickie, “P.R.” stunt space ride aboard one of billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rockets.
But as “cringeworthy” and “tone-deaf” as many viewers found this “gluttonous,” celebrity space-tourism trip, the event still delivered a ratings boost for King’s embattled morning show on April 14, NewscastStudio.com reported, citing Neilson Media Research released by CBS.
“CBS Mornings” enjoyed an “impressive, rare, first-place finish” in the ratings for morning news shows on that day, NewscastStudio.com reported. Some 3.9 million viewers tuned into CBS Mornings that morning, ahead of the usually top-rated “Today” on NBC or “Good Morning America on ABC.
But NewscastStudio.com cautioned against reading too much into this ratings jump, noting that “CBS Mornings” has long lagged behind the other two shows in that time period, particularly no. 1 “Today” show. That last time that “CBS Mornings” was the top-rated show was the morning of March 8, 2021. That’s when it aired another high-profile segment: additional footage from Oprah Winfrey’s blockbuster interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry from the night before.
It’s also easy to imagine that a lot of people tuned in to “hate watch” the 11-minute space ride. Perry, King, Sanchez and “CBS Mornings” were seen as “embarrassing” themselves in their effort to promote the event as “historic,” by saying they were part of the first all-female “crew” to go up into space.
But before the flight, an online chorus of detractors expressed anger and horror at the way these women talked up getting their hair and makeup done for the trip. Critics also noted that none of the women would be piloting the craft, because it is fully automated, and that the trip would last less than 11 minutes, meaning they could hardly be considered “astronauts.”
Moreover, Perry, King and Sanchez were excoriated or being rich celebrities, going on a “vanity ride” aboard a billionaire’s rocket — when many Americans face fears of recession or of losing their retirement savings due to the global economic turmoil unleashed by Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Before and after the trip, other female celebrities, like Olivia Munn, Jessica Chastain, Olivia Wilde, Emily Ratajkowski, blasted the feminist P.R. spin. Many others also shared their revulsion over this “P.R stunt” on behalf of Bezos and Sanchez, who have been slammed as self-serving “oligarchs” who are looking to benefit by being friendly to the Trump administration.
Many people online also wrote in a gallows-humor way about the chance of something going wrong, and many even joked about these women being shot up into space — and not coming back. Even a corporation like Wendy’s joined the pile-on, asking on X about Perry: “Can we send her back?”
Certainly, “CBS Mornings” and King, its celebrity co-anchor, took a reputational hit by having her provide free publicity for an aerospace company founded by Bezos, the founder of Amazon.
CBS and Blue Origin have refused to say whether King was Bezos’s guest. Reports say that the cost for a single seat on a Blue Origin rocket can start in the six figures and possibly rise into the millions. CBS News is among news organizations that forbid their anchors and reporters from accepting “freebies.”
“Only time will tell” if “CBS Mornings” can say it was worth participating in this Blue Origin event, as NewscastStudio.com reported. The network will need to see if the ratings boost translates into new viewers who will continue to tune in for the long term, or if the surge was just an anomaly and the result of a high-profile segment.
Unfortunately, the Blue Origin ride turned out to be widely viewed as a P.R. debacle for pretty much everyone involved, and it remains to be seen who can weather this storm. This debacle comes as “CBS Mornings” has struggled to climb out of third place behind ABC and NBC, the Los Angeles Times reported in March. While morning programs remain the profit centers of the networks’ news divisions, they all have faced audience erosion as consumers have moved away from traditional TV.
