Jeff Gianola’s Journal: Anchoring CBS Weekend News

Editor’s Note: KOIN 6 News anchorman Jeff Gianola will retire around Thanksgiving 2025 after more than 40 years as a Portland journalist. In this series, Jeff looks back at some of the most memorable stories he’s covered and shared.

This original story took place in May 2020.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — When the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down, news organizations had to be creative to get the news out. That’s how in May 2020 I went from local news anchor to national anchorman when I was tapped to anchor the CBS Weekend Evening News.

That weekend, May 16-17, 2020, the lead story was a controversy swirling around President Trump, who spent the weekend at Camp David. CBS producers asked if there was a local story the national viewers might like — and there was. The Sunday broadcast included a report on the 40th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.

But as I was sitting at the anchor desk getting ready for the newscast, I started to get nervous. Not from what the producers and directors were telling me in my earpiece, but rather from the bosses and executives who gathered here behind the scenes in the studio. I started to sweat a little, like the Albert Brooks anchorman character in “Broadcast News.”

I managed to keep my cool (unlike Albert Brooks.)

“That’s the CBS Evening News for this Sunday. ’60 Minutes’ is coming up next. I’m Jeff Gianola reporting from KOIN Television in Portland, Oregon. Good night.”

And after signing off the Sunday broadcast, I called my mom, who was 95 at the time. I asked her what she thought and she said, “Your tie was a little crooked.”

My weekend of fame was over. But the memories will last my lifetime.