On New Year’s Day, three CBS-owned television stations in California will carry something that hasn’t been seen much from the Golden State’s major TV stations in recent years: an investigative documentary report examining the inner workings — and dysfunction — of the California statehouse in Sacramento.
The half-hour news special, “California’s Fentanyl Fight: Politicians V. Parents,” will debut Jan. 1 on KCAL-TV Los Angeles, KPIX-TV San Francisco and KOVR Sacramento, on linear and streaming platforms. The program hails from CBS News California Investigates, a unit founded in March with the goal of examining systemic issues within California’s capitol. It’s part of a larger effort to emphasize coverage of public policy issues and to use the CBS News platform and reporting resources to hold Sacramento lawmakers accountable.
For CBS News California correspondent Julie Watts, her investigation into the legislature’s inability to address the fentanyl crisis raging across the state led her to meet with parents who have lost their children to overdoses of the synthetic opioid drug. Watts came to understand that parents’ voices need to be heard in the process.
“Roughly 50% of our legislature is brand new or has been there less than two years, so you’ve got a huge freshman class of lawmakers who themselves are learning how the California capitol really works. So for me, I’m not only opening up Californians’ eyes,” Watts tells Variety. “I think it’s also going to really impact those lawmakers, especially with the notoriety about the release of this special to say, ‘Hey, for the first time in a long time, we’re paying attention.’”
Watts spent a year working on the special. She details the problems that stem California’s one-party supermajority of Democrats in the state, and how that contributes to inactivity by lawmakers.
The more Watts spoke with parents who lost kids to fentanyl, the more she realized that “California’s capital is really convoluted and complicated” and that capturing the personal stories of loss would help translate the policy debates and political maneuvering to a general audience.
“What is so unique about this special is that these are real people who have zero policy experience, right?” Watts says. “It really is spectacular to see how California’s capitol works through the eyes of real people … The parents opened up their homes, opened up their hearts and they really helped tell the story.”
Like all of the stories that Watts tells in statewide communities, she’s always looking for what is affecting real people across all three of her markets: Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento.
To help with her research, Watts tapped into data through a new AI tool created by the nonpartisan newsroom CalMatters. The Digital Democracy database allowed her to analyze thousands of votes in California and hours of videos of hearings.
As a mother herself, Watts finds it “amazing” at the number of parents who become “unintentional” activists after the devastation of a child’s death.
“I can relate to what it would be like to lose a child and have a purpose in their passing,” she says. “That’s what they’ve done here.”
The special will be available to stream live on CBS Los Angeles (KCAL-TV) at 12 p.m., CBS Sacramento (KOVR-TV) at 4 p.m. and CBS Bay Area (KPIX-TV) at 5:30 p.m. on CBS’ linear and streaming channels.
