CBS This Morning (PatrZDZ's vision)

**CBS This Morning** (frequently shortened to **This Morning**) is an American morning television program which is broadcast on CBS. The program debuted on November 30, 1987, and airs live every weekday from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and is the seventh attempt at a morning news-talk program by the network since 1987. The program airs Monday through Friday from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. (live in the Eastern Time Zone, and on tape delay in all other time zones), although in some markets, only the second hour airs in full weekdays and the Saturday edition may or may not air. It is hosted by Harry Smith, Hannah Storm, Russ Mitchell and Marysol Castro from studios at the General Motors Building in New York City.

## Before The Early Show

### The 1950s

CBS' first attempt at a morning program debuted on March 15, 1954, with The Morning Show, originally hosted by Walter Cronkite and very similar in format to Today (which also ran for two hours from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time until it was reduced to one hour to accommodate the premiere of Captain Kangaroo in 1955). Additional hosts over the years included Jack Paar, John Henry Faulk and Dick Van Dyke. Paar, the most successful of them in drawing an audience, made significant changes in the tone of the program during his tenure as host, casting it into a talk program with some infotainment elements but featuring an emphasis on humor and conversation, reminiscent of the kind of morning radio show he had done prior to World War II. In 1956, Paar was moved from The Morning Show to his own late-morning talk program on the network, which aired after Captain Kangaroo. (Paar left CBS to take over NBC's The Tonight Show in 1957.)

Next came Good Morning! with Will Rogers Jr., which lasted for 14 months before being replaced in April 1957 by a different version of The Morning Show, a variety program hosted by country music singer Jimmy Dean, which ended that December after nine months. The 45-minute program aired at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time; it was followed by a 15-minute news program, the CBS Morning News, anchored by Richard C. Hottelet, and later Stuart Novins, which led into Captain Kangaroo at 8:00 a.m.

### The 1960s

CBS did not make any serious attempt to program against Today for eight years. The CBS Morning News debuted on September 2, 1963; the program was similar in style to its CBS Evening News counterpart in that it was also a hard news-focused program, featuring various hosts and correspondents from CBS News over the years. It debuted as a half-hour broadcast anchored by Mike Wallace, who joined the network that year, and aired Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Coincidentally, it replaced the daytime magazine program Calendar, which was hosted by Wallace's future 60 Minutes colleague Harry Reasoner.

In August 1965, CBS decided it could get better ratings by airing reruns of I Love Lucy in the 10:00 a.m. slot. The network moved the Morning News to 7:05 a.m. (although most affiliates carried it at 7:30 a.m. on tape delay). Wallace only lasted one more year after the move. Tired of the early wake-up time, he left the program to cover Richard Nixon's 1968 comeback presidential campaign for CBS News. Wallace suggested Los Angeles newsman Joseph Benti as his replacement.

### The 1970s

It was during Joseph Benti's run (through August 28, 1970) that the program became the first regularly scheduled one-hour newscast on network television on March 31, 1969. Until 1981, it preceded Captain Kangaroo on CBS's morning schedule from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The new hour-long format featured John Hart reading the news headlines from Washington, D.C. and CBS News Moscow correspondent Hughes Rudd as an occasional contributor. After Hart replaced Benti as the main anchor in New York City, the Washington anchor desk was assumed by Bernard Kalb until 1972, and by Nelson Benton for a year afterwards.

On August 6, 1973, Hart was replaced (he eventually went to NBC). In an effort to emulate Today, which had Barbara Walters as a co-anchor, Rudd was teamed up with former The Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn. Unfortunately for CBS, within days, the hugely publicized pairing of what was dubbed by the press as "the beauty and the grouch" (respectively referring to Quinn and Rudd) turned out to be a disaster. Quinn was gone after six months, leaving after the February 1, 1974 telecast. A more experienced correspondent, Bruce Morton, later took over the Washington desk, remaining there until 1977. During that period, the newscast evolved into a straightforward delivery of the morning news, much like Cronkite's evening newscast. Despite the anchor turnover through the years, the broadcast set a consistent tone which emphasized news and ideas over celebrity gossip or self-help tips. The latest news bureau of CBS News Washington correspondent Barry Serafin. The anchor desk was subsequently shared by the team of Lesley Stahl and Richard Threlkeld, while Morton and Rudd returned to provide feature reports and commentary.

### The 1980s

#### The Morning Era

On Sunday, January 28, 1979, CBS revamped the program, premiering Morning, which was titled in accordance to the day of the week (Monday Morning, Tuesday Morning, etc.). The weekday Morning series competed with Good Morning America and Today. Charles Kuralt hosted Sundays, while Bob Schieffer hosted the rest of the week; Kuralt took over the daily broadcasts as well starting on October 27, 1980. The program featured long-form pieces from CBS News bureaus, and many viewed it as a highbrow, classy newscast in the best CBS tradition. Despite critical acclaim, the program remained dead last in the ratings, and CBS was under more pressure from affiliates to present a more viable morning competitor. So on September 28, 1981, Morning dropped the days of the week from its title (except for CBS News Sunday Morning), was extended to 90 minutes and added Diane Sawyer as co-host; in the process, Captain Kangaroo was reduced to a half-hour daily and pushed to an earlier time period (7:00 a.m.).

#### The CBS Morning News

On January 18, 1982, again at the expense of Captain Kangaroo, Morning was expanded to the same two-hour format that Today and GMA were utilizing. Along the way it reassumed the title of The CBS Morning News (not to be confused with CBS's earlier morning newscast, the CBS Early Morning News, later retitled as the CBS Morning News). Kuralt was replaced on the weekday broadcasts on March 15, 1982. By this time management decided that morning news programming should be more competitive and hired Bill Kurtis, anchor of the highly rated evening newscasts at WBBM-TV in Chicago, as Sawyer's co-host. The Sunday edition of Morning, with Kuralt as host, was kept; it remains on the air under its original title, CBS News Sunday Morning (now hosted by Jane Pauley).

By the fall of 1982, Captain Kangaroo had disappeared from the daily schedule, and the new team of Kurtis and Sawyer were anchoring three hours of news in the morning, as they were also seen on the CBS Early Morning News an hour earlier.

Their teamwork helped boost the program's ratings, albeit briefly; George Merlis, a former Good Morning America producer hired to revamp the broadcast, is also credited by most network insiders with nearly doubling viewership numbers for The CBS Morning News by March 1983. The numbers continued to climb during the summer; during one week in August 1983, it passed Today for the second place spot behind GMA, and was in closing distance behind the latter program for the #1 spot before it dropped back to third place again. After Merlis was relieved from his duties for his trouble, Sawyer, tired of the morning grind, left in the fall of 1984 to become the first female correspondent on 60 Minutes.

CBS News correspondents Jane Wallace and Meredith Vieira briefly alternated as interim co-host in an on-air try-out that lasted several months, but both were passed over for the permanent spot. Instead, CBS settled for former Miss America and The NFL Today co-host Phyllis George, who was given a three-year contract following a mere two-week trial run. There was little chemistry between George and Kurtis onscreen and the show fared poorly.

The lowest point of her very brief tenure came on May 14, 1985, during George's interview with false rape accuser Cathleen Mae Webb and the man whom she had falsely accused, Gary Dotson. In an effort to get the two to make amends to each other, George made a simple suggestion: "How about a hug?" Both Webb and Dotson graciously refused. That infamous interview alienated audiences and was blasted by critics, helping to put an unpleasant close to George's television career at this initial mark. A very unhappy Bill Kurtis subsequently departed from the program and resigned from CBS News in July, returning to Chicago and his former anchor spot at WBBM-TV. Once again, Bob Schieffer served as a brief replacement. Phyllis George eventually left CBS for good that fall.

Maria Shriver, who had joined CBS as a West Coast feature reporter in 1983, and Forrest Sawyer, new to the network, were named co-anchors of The CBS Morning News on August 30, 1985. After a respectable year albeit still placing third in the ratings, Shriver and Sawyer made their last appearance on the program on August 1, 1986, after CBS announced that the early morning timeslot would leave control of the news division, to be replaced by a new show produced by a newly created unit in the CBS Broadcast Group. Prodded by network affiliates, CBS decided that an entertainment format might work better against Good Morning America and Today, and planning began for a new show that would come to be called The Morning Program. Bruce Morton and Faith Daniels became the first in a string of substitutes to host Morning News until it left the air.

In an August 1986 Newsweek article, columnist Jonathan Alter wrote regarding the move, "The CBS Morning News was simply shot dead. Underappreciated co-anchors Forrest Sawyer and Maria Shriver left the air with a classy farewell after the network's announcement that the perennially lagging show would be canceled by the end of the year."

Tom Shales reported in The Washington Post, "throughout the industry there is shock and derision for the way CBS has handled [the] Morning News, so long its problem child. Competitors are saying the Morning News fiasco is a symptom of a new disarray in CBS News, and some question whether current CBS News executives will all be able to ride out the storm."

#### The Morning Program

On January 12, 1987, The Morning Program made its debut hosted by actress Mariette Hartley and Rolland Smith, former longtime anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City. Radio personality Mark McEwen handled the weather, while comedian Bob Saget did comedy bits. Produced by the network's entertainment division, the show ran for 90 minutes (7:30 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific, 6:30 to 8:00 a.m. Central and Mountain) behind a briefly expanded 90-minute CBS Early Morning News broadcast (6:00 to 7:30 a.m. local; although most larger-market affiliates pre-empted all or part of the 6:00 a.m. hour to carry a locally produced morning newscast), which had dropped "Early" from its title.

However, The Morning Program, with its awkward mix of news, entertainment and comedy, became the joke of the industry, receiving scathing reviews. At one point, it generated a mere 10 percent share, the lowest ratings that CBS had seen in the morning slot in five years. The show was also dragging down ratings for the syndicated programming that most affiliates aired in the 9:00 Eastern and Pacific/8:00 Central and Mountain slot, and many of them were threatening to preempt the show unless changes were made (for instance, CBS affiliate KKTV in Colorado Springs, Colorado successfully dropped the show, and replaced the morning block with syndicated cartoon programming). Finally, CBS canceled the show and returned the time slot to the news division after a 10½-month run. Hartley and Smith were dumped (the former departed the program two weeks early and was replaced by Sandy Hill, who had formerly co-hosted Good Morning America), while Saget left to star on the ABC sitcom Full House. A longtime producer summed up this version of the program upon its demise by saying, "...everyone thought we had the lowest ratings you could have in the morning. The Morning Program proved us wrong".

## History

On November 30, 1987, The Morning Program was replaced by CBS This Morning, with hosts Harry Smith, former Good Morning America news anchor Kathleen Sullivan, and Mark McEwen, a holdover from the show's infotainment-intensive predecessor The Morning Program as weather caster and announcer. Sullivan was replaced by Paula Zahn on February 26, 1990.

Beginning on October 26, 1992, in an effort to prevent affiliates from dropping the program, CBS increased the amount of time available during the broadcast for local stations, most of which broadcast their own early morning news programs before the national news begins. Nevertheless, several CBS stations in top-ranking markets, like then-affiliates WJBK in Detroit, WAGA in Atlanta, WHDH in Boston and KDKA in Pittsburgh dropped the program in favor of either local or syndicated programming. Another station, KPIX in San Francisco, airs CBS This Morning live with the east coast at 4:00 a.m. PT as the lead-in to its morning newscast.

Smith and Zahn left the program on June 14, 1996, with various CBS News correspondents Harold Dow, Erin Moriarty, John Roberts, Russ Mitchell, Hattie Kauffman, Mark McEwen and Jane Robelot anchoring CBS This Morning for seven weeks until a new format was in place. In August 1996, the program was revamped again, and introduced the local/national hybrid format.

## Saturday edition

**CBS News Saturday Morning** is the Saturday edition of the program, which premiered in 1997. The current anchors of the Saturday edition are Gretchen Carlson and Chris Wragge, alongside weather anchor Lonnie Quinn. Like the weekend editions of other network morning shows, the program has a greater focus on human-interest pieces than on weekdays, though it still concentrates primarily on the news of the day.

Unlike its competitors Today and Good Morning America, CBS This Morning does not have a Sunday edition, due to the continued success of CBS News Sunday Morning, which maintains a distinct newsmagazine format with long-form feature reports and in-depth interview segments.