When Bari Weiss took over as editor-in-chief of CBS News, one of the liberal, elitist media’s biggest fears was that she would bring her anti-woke mindset to one of America’s most famous (or infamous) brands.
But with stories like one that kicked off the second hour of Wednesday’s CBS Mornings by expressing horror at comedian Shane Gillis’s comments on Saturday Night Live about how women dress at the gym, it’s safe to say the inmates are still largely in control of the proverbial asylum.
Co-host Nate Burleson had the tease: “And we will also look at the backlash against Shane Gillis for his SNL monologue and his jokes about women’s gym clothes. The question is: Is he being targeted unfairly by cancel culture, or does he deserve all of this criticism he’s getting?”
Burleson also had the open to the report from Saturday co-host Adriana Diaz, calling the story “a controversy sweeping across social media,” with Gillis “under fire after his monologue on last weekend’s Saturday Night Live sparked accusations of misogyny.”
“Some people weren’t laughing at his jokes about the clothes women wear to the gym. But Gillis, he also has his defenders. It’s the age-old question in comedy: Where is the line? Who decides where that line is? And what happens when someone crosses it,” he added.
Comedian Shane Gillis is under fire, after his monologue on “SNL” last weekend sparked accusations of misogyny.
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 14, 2026
Some celebrities, including former “SNL” cast member Ego Nwodim, Maren Morris and Dan Levy, have criticized the joke he made about the clothes women wear to the gym —… pic.twitter.com/OjhxYdNQDj
Diaz had only three sentences from Gillis’s monologue before launching into complaints:
GILLIS [on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, 10/10/26]: I haven’t been to the gym in so long I didn’t know women just dress like whores now. [LAUGHTER]
DIAZ: Nervous laughter greeted comedian Shane Gillis after he made this joke on Saturday Night Live.
GILLIS [on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, 10/10/26]: And don’t look, you are not allowed to look. For real, don’t look because they are filming. I’m in the background of, like, ten TikToks right now.
She gloated that “[n]ow, he’s in the background of even more”as “[s]ocial media immediately pounced, including celebrities like former SNL cast member Ego Nwodim, singer Maren Morris, and actor Dan Levy.”
After a clip from Levy’s angry lecture on Instagram, Diaz argued this was par for the course from Gillis since he “first rose to prominence when he was cast on SNL in 2019,” but was axed “days later...after clips surfaced showing him making offensive and anti-Asian remarks on his podcast, but his career quickly rebounded.”
Diaz conceded Gillis even “released two specials” and “recently broke a Guinness World Record for the largest attendance ever at a comedy show with nearly 74,000 audience members.”
But as quickly as he tried to give Gillis his due, she used a clip from one of his Netflix specials in which he said he doesn’t “have many female friends” and is instead “more of a having-a-good-time type of guy.”
Only then did she briefly concede he has “supporters” that “argue his edgy brand of humor, including last weekend’s SNL monologue, have been unfairly targeted by cancel culture.”
Diaz spent the rest of her report promoting the uptight nature as though it were virtuous (click “expand”):
DIAZ: Others have made light of the latest backlash against him.
BRANDON COUTO [on Instagram]: I will be completely honest with you. I’ve been doing some of my runs and workouts in my spandex shorts when I’m alone, and it’s electric.
SOPHIE CARPENTER: Well, the point of a joke is to be funny. I didn’t find anything funny about it.
DIAZ: Sophie Carpenter is a fitness coach and content creator. She worries jokes like the one Gills made Saturday could discourage some women from working out altogether.
CARPENTER: If a woman is already feeling hesitant to go to a gym, that would be a situation in which seeing a joke like this would further discourage her from even stepping through the front doors.
Back live, she said CBS “received no comment” from Gillis’s team, but insisted it nonetheless “has a lot of people talking.”
Featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers agreed: “It really does, and I’m sure they will keep talking. It’s a complicated subject.”
With media coverage like this asserting there’s controversy they themselves want to foment, you can be sure it won’t be the last we’ll hear about the left griping about Gillis.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from October 14, click here.
