CBS News Sunday Morning (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CBS News Sunday Morning** (frequently shortened to **Sunday Morning**) is an American television newsmagazine that has aired on CBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and original host Charles Kuralt, the 90-minute program currently airs Sundays between 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. EST, and between 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. PST. (live in the Eastern & Central time zones, and on tape delay elsewhere) Since October 9, 2016, the program has been hosted by Anthony Mason, who also hosts news segments. His predescessor, Charles Osgood, hosted Sunday Morning for twenty-two years (and is the program's longest-serving host) after taking over from Kuralt on April 10, 1994.

## History

CBS News Sunday Morning was originally conceived to be a broadcast version of a Sunday newspaper magazine supplement, most typified by The New York Times Magazine. The format was conceived as the Sunday equivalent of the CBS Morning News anchored by Bob Scheiffer, which following Sunday Morning's debut was retitled to reflect each day of the week (such as Monday Morning, Tuesday Morning, etc.). Although an attempt to apply the same format to weekday broadcasts proved unsuccessful, the Sunday broadcast survived and retains its original format, including elements of its original graphic and set design. Long after the daily editions ended, Sunday Morning's opening sequence continued to display all seven days of the week until the early 2000s.

On January 25, 2004, Sunday Morning celebrated its 25th anniversary with clips and highlights from the show's first quarter-century on the air. On February 1, 2009, the program celebrated its 30th anniversary, and segments examined how the world had changed in the three decades its debut, the history of Sundays in the U.S. and–as a tie-in to the show's logo–the physics of the sun. An artist was commissioned to create new sun logos for the program, which debuted on that edition and were used in future broadcasts. On May 17, 2009, Sunday Morning began broadcasting in high-definition. In 2014, rebroadcasts of the program began airing on sister cable network Smithsonian Channel (owned by CBS's parent company ViacomCBS) but has since been pulled from that channel's programming.

### Charles Kuralt era (1979–1994)

On January 28, 1979, CBS launched Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' Morning show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday edition until April 3, 1994, when he retired after fifteen years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.

### Charles Osgood era (1994–2016)

Osgood's first broadcast as host was on April 10, 1994. Ultimately, his tenure of twenty-two years as host exceeded Kuralt's fifteen. Osgood's final broadcast as host was on September 25, 2016.

Among Osgood's personal trademarks were his bow-tie, his weekly signoff ("Until then, I'll see you on the radio") and his propensity for delivering his commentaries in whimsical verse. Osgood also regularly pronounced the 21st-century years as "twenty oh one, twenty oh two..." as opposed to the more common "two thousand one, two thousand two", etc.

### Anthony Mason era (2016–present)

Main correspondent Anthony Mason was elevated to the role of the program's host in 2016, succeeding Osgood, making him the anchor of a regular morning news program for the first time in over thirty years; he continues in this role as of 2023. Mason began his role as host on October 9, 2016.

### Relationships with CBS' weekday morning news programs

As noted, for the first few years of Sunday Morning's run, CBS News' weekday morning broadcasts were similarly branded Monday Morning through Friday Morning respectively, and were produced on the same set. However, these broadcasts emphasized hard news as opposed to Sunday Morning's focus on feature stories. Originally anchored by Bob Schieffer, Kuralt eventually took over the daily role, and was for a short time joined by Diane Sawyer as co-host. However, the weekday program's then-limited 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. EST air time (the long-running Captain Kangaroo was entrenched in the 8:00 a.m. hour) hampered its ability to compete with Today on NBC and Good Morning America on ABC, though it expanded to ninety minutes (from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. EST) in 1981 and was renamed simply Morning. In 1982, the weekday version was extended to two hours (7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.) and reverted to its previous title as the CBS Morning News, adopting a different set and distinct graphics in the process; by March, Kuralt had been replaced by Bill Kurtis. Meanwhile, Sunday Morning maintained its format and set with Kuralt as host.

Presently, Sunday Morning and CBS' other morning news programs, under varying names and formats, remain fully separate productions, though with occasional cross-promotion and some sharing of correspondents.

## Format

Each edition begins with a short summary of national and international news headlines, sports and a national weather forecast – which unlike most morning news programs, does not allow a cue to affiliates to run a local weather insert. It then follows a story totem pole in the center of the CBS soundstage, with previews of featured stories set to air during the broadcast (the first four of which feature clips from the story packages with preview narration by the respective correspondent) being shown prior to the news summary. Each story covered in a given episode has a glass plate with its headline on this pole (digitally inserted on the pole as a prepared graphic since the late 2000s), which the camera follows after Mason's introductions. Music in the show is usually limited to the opening and closing title theme. Mason introduces each story with a short monologue, then sends the show out to the pre-taped segment. The show usually ends with a preview of the guests and topics to air on that week's Face the Nation (which follows the program on most CBS stations), followed by a preview of next week's Sunday Morning broadcast. After the commercial break, there is a 60-second tranquil nature scene.

The program follows a format similar to a Sunday newspaper, but presented in a television show. Notably, Sunday Morning includes significant coverage of the fine and performing arts, including coverage of topics usually not covered in network news, such as architecture, painting, ballet, opera and classical music, though increasingly more popular forms of music have been included as well. The program's correspondents tend to ask nontraditional questions of guests (for instance, actor Brad Pitt was asked about his love of architecture, and Grant Hill about his painting collection). Television essays similar to the kinds delivered on PBS also appear, and the program generally has a stable of equally positive and negative news stories to fill up the program when there is no breaking news of note. Story lengths are longer (lasting up to twelve minutes at a time) and the pace of the program is considerably quieter and more relaxed than CBS This Morning and CBS News Saturday Morning.

Commentators Ben Stein and Nancy Giles appear in recurring segments to deliver opinion commentaries, and correspondent Bill Geist also contributes human interest stories. The program ends with a nature scene, not given a formal title for most of the program's history, but since entitled "Moment of Nature" as it is now a sponsored element.

Despite the stereotype of the program appealing primarily to senior citizens, Sunday Morning has actually placed first in its time slot in the key demographic of adults 25–54, beating all of the political discussion-driven Sunday morning talk shows.

On one occasion, in April 1986, the entire program served as a showcase for classical music when a live broadcast of Vladimir Horowitz's historic Moscow piano recital was aired. For that presentation only, the program departed from its usual newsmagazine format and devoted the entire ninety minutes to a complete presentation of the recital. Because the recital was given at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time, CBS was able to broadcast it at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The presentation was such a critical and popular success that it was repeated two months later and was subsequently released on VHS and DVD.

### Segments

* Cover Story: The main topic of that week's broadcast
* Almanac: A notable event or the birth or death of a person that happened on the same calendar day of the weekly broadcast
* Profile: A look at the accomplishments of people
* Pulse: A look at facts by different sources
* Passage: A person who died within the past week
* Calendar: A look at the week ahead
* Moment of Nature: A look at animals and plants at the end of the weekly broadcast

### Title sequence

The original title sequence of Sunday Morning (from its first broadcast on Sunday, Jan. 28, 1979 to about 1991 or 1992) had a film-like look to it. First, a large yellow sun rose up from the bottom to the middle of the screen; that sun then zoomed back quickly and turned into the CBS Eye (the Eye sprang forward from its position in the middle of the screen and left a trail behind it that the viewer went through. Next, the days of the week (originally Sunday through Friday [owing to the fact that Bob Schieffer had a weekday edition that had each broadcast named for each day of the week, Monday Morning through Friday Morning]; Saturday was added to that graphic around 1984) wiped on the screen with a blind-like effect, flashed quickly, then left the same way. Then, those same days went from the bottom of the screen to the top in a diagonal stair effect in different colors. Finally, Sunday (or whichever day of the week for the weekday Schieffer broadcasts; on those broadcasts, the sequence was shortened, omitting the first two parts) dipped down from the top of the screen to the bottom, leaving a trail behind it, and then went back up to the middle; that flashed, turned white, and then Morning appeared below it as the trail on Sunday disappeared. The full title then flashed as the CBS News name appeared on top of it, and the black screen gave way to a shot of the studio and Charles Kuralt (or whoever was filling in for him in his absence); the studio lights then came up as the music ended.

## Production

The program is marked by its distinctive "Sun" logo, which is prominent in the program's title sequence. In addition, in between some segments, images of the sun in various forms also appear. The show's theme is the trumpet fanfare "Abblasen", attributed to Gottfried Reiche. A recording of the piece on a baroque trumpet by Don Smithers was used as the show's theme for many years until producers decided to replace the vinyl recording with a digital of a piccolo trumpet by Doc Severinsen; the current version is played by Wynton Marsalis.