Why the 'CBS Evening News' failed to air for a chunk of America

East coast viewers expecting to see the "CBS Evening News" on Tuesday were perhaps a bit puzzled when the broadcast failed to air. Instead, viewers who tuned in were treated to several promos for CBS shows, and then later a feed from CBSN, the company's 24-hour digital streaming network.

It's extremely rare for a network newscast to fail to air in such a fashion. In a statement, CBS News blamed unspecified "technical difficulties" that "prevented the CBS Evening News from airing at 6:30 pm, ET on the CBS Television Network." The network resolved the issue in time to air the program (which included an interview with Mark Zuckerberg) for the west coast, and added that the broadcast would be made available on its website.

"Thanks everybody for checking in, we're fine," Norah O'Donnell assured viewers in an Instagram post. "But there was a major technical issue that prevented the broadcast from being seen on the east coast." O'Donnell pointed out, "It's a broadcast in the era of Covid."

O'Donnell was likely referring to the fact that the news division is no longer anchored at the CBS Broadcast Center because of the coronavirus. The office was closed on March 11 — before most lockdowns — after two employees tested positive for Covid-19. Technical teams and editorial teams have been working from home while the network maintains a skeleton staff in the office. And the broadcast has been routed from D.C. and a backup facility in New York.

"We have a very small team here in our DC bureau," O'Donnell explained in her Instagram video. "Thank you to them for all their hard work, everyday, and especially today." Compounding the problem is that unlike other networks, I'm told, CBS doesn't have a back-up control room. The network had been operating two-months without an incident, until Tuesday night.