| CBS Morning News | |
|---|---|
Current title card (sans date of airtime) |
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| Format | News |
| Presented by | Betty Nguyen |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera setup |
| Running time | approx. 23 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original run | October 4, 1982 – present |
CBS Morning News is the half-hour daily television broadcast from CBS News that airs following Up to the Minute and features late-breaking news stories, weather forecasts, and sports scores. It is anchored by Betty Nguyen, who has held the spot since June 21, 2010. The broadcast airs live at 4:00 a.m. Eastern time and is updated for different time zones across the United States. In most markets, the broadcast airs from 4:30 to 5:00 immediately before local news. CBS stations that do not air a morning newscast may air it in a one hour block from immediately before The Early Show.
CBS Morning News was the final morning news program to convert to high definition, doing so in November 2010, while its counterpart, Up to the Minute, is still produced and aired in standard definition as of September 2011[update].
Contents |
The original CBS Morning News began as a predecessor to the network's current Early Show. For most of the 1960s and 1970s the broadcast aired as a 60-minute hard news broadcast at 7:00 a.m., opposite Today on NBC and preceding Captain Kangaroo on CBS. When CBS re-formatted the early morning broadcast, the CBS Morning News became a pre-dawn 30 minute news broadcast. Walter Cronkite, and sportscaster Jim McKay while at CBS, both anchored the original CBS Morning News at one time.
CBS has made several attempts at morning shows since 1954. First came The Morning Show (1954–1956), originally hosted by Walter Cronkite and very similar to The Today Show in fashion (it, too, ran for two hours from 7-9 a.m. ET until being 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.
Next came Good Morning! with Will Rogers, Jr., which lasted 14 months before being replaced from April–December 1957 by The Morning Show, a variety program hosted by Jimmy Dean. The program aired from 7–7:45 a.m.
CBS would not make any serious attempt to program against Today for eight years. On September 2, 1963, The CBS Morning News debuted, similar to its evening counterpart in the way that it was also a hard newscast featuring various hosts and correspondents from CBS News over the years. It started out as a half-hour broadcast anchored by Mike Wallace and airing Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. ET. Coincidentally, it replaced a CBS daytime magazine program called Calendar, which was hosted by Wallace's future 60 Minutes colleague Harry Reasoner. In August 1965, upon discovering that they could make more money airing reruns of I Love Lucy in the 10:00 a.m. slot, CBS moved the broadcast start time to 7:05 a.m. (although most affiliates carried it via tape delay at 7:30 a.m.). Wallace only lasted a year with the change in hours and eventually tired of the grind, leaving to cover Richard Nixon's comeback for CBS News.
It was during Joseph Benti's run (through August 28, 1970) that the program became the first regularly scheduled one-hour newscast ever on network television on March 31, 1969. Until 1981, it would precede Captain Kangaroo on the CBS morning schedule from 7:00-8:00 a.m. ET. The new hour format now featured John Hart reading the news from Washington and CBS News Moscow correspondent Hughes Rudd as an occasional contributor.
On August 6, 1973, after Hart left for NBC, in an effort to emulate The Today Show, Rudd was teamed up with former Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn. Quinn was gone after six months, leaving after the February 1, 1974 telecast. A much more experienced correspondent, Bruce Morton, later took over the Washington desk, remaining there until 1977. During that period, the newscast had evolved into a well-crafted package delivered in a straightforward manner, much like Cronkite's evening newscast. Despite the anchor turnover through the years, the broadcast had set a consistent tone which emphasized news and ideas over celebrity gossip or self-help tips.
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 The Today Show. Charles Kuralt hosted Sundays while Bob Schieffer hosted the rest of the week; Kuralt took over the daily show as well in the fall of 1980. Despite critical acclaim, the show 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 Sunday Morning), and was extended to 90 minutes and added Diane Sawyer as co-host.
On January 18, 1982, again at the expense of Captain Kangaroo, Morning was lengthened to the same two-hour format that Today and GMA were utilizing. Along the way it reassumed the title of The CBS Morning News. An understandably exhausted Kuralt was relieved of his duties on the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, at a time when a restructuring on the Evening News forced his popular On the Road segments to be gradually phased out. By this time management decided that morning news programming should be more competitive and hired Bill Kurtis, who was then anchoring WBBM-TV's highly rated evening newscasts in Chicago, as Sawyer's co-host. The Sunday edition of Morning with Kuralt as host was kept; it remains on the air as of 2011 under its original title, CBS News Sunday Morning, now hosted by Charles Osgood.
Their teamwork helped boost the show's ratings, albeit briefly; George Merlis, a former GMA producer hired to revamp the broadcast, is also credited by most network insiders with nearly doubling viewership numbers by March 1983. The numbers continued to climb during the summer; during one week in August 1983 it passed The Today Show 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 NFL Today co-host Phyllis George, who was given a three-year contract following a mere two-week trial run. The low point of her very brief tenure came on May 14, 1985 during George's interview with false rape accuser Cathleen Crowell 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 that point. A very unhappy Bill Kurtis subsequently departed from the show and resigned from CBS News in July, returning to Chicago and his old anchor spot at WBBM-TV. Once again Bob Schieffer served as a brief replacement. \
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 August 30, 1985. After a respectable year but still placed third in the ratings, Shriver and Sawyer made their last appearance on the show August 1, 1986, after CBS announced that the Morning News timeslot would leave control of the news division and be supervised by a newly created unit in the CBS Broadcast Group.[1] 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.[2] Bruce Morton and Faith Daniels became the first in a string of substitutes to host Morning News until it left the air.[3]
"The CBS Morning News was simply shot dead," wrote Jonathan Alter in Newsweek. "Underappreciated coanchors 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."[4]
"Throughout the industry there is shock and derision for the way CBS has handled Morning News, so long its problem child," Tom Shales reported in The Washington Post. "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."[5]
On January 12, 1987, The Morning Program made its debut[6] 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 Bob Saget did comedy bits. The show ran for 90 minutes behind a briefly expanded 90-minute CBS Early Morning News, 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 its worst reviews[7][8] and at one point plummeting to its lowest ratings in five years. The format was aborted and the time slot returned to the news division after a ten-and-a-half-month run. Hartley and Smith were dumped, 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".[8]
The program first aired in its current format on October 4, 1982 as the CBS Early Morning News, with Bill Kurtis and Diane Sawyer anchoring. Sawyer departed both programs for 60 Minutes in the fall of 1984 and was briefly succeeded on both shows by Jane Wallace. For the first half of 1985, Kurtis would continue to anchor the Early Morning News solo until March while continuing to co-anchor Morning News with Phyllis George until July. Faith Daniels took over and would remain on the anchor desk, most of the time sharing the anchor desk with Forrest Sawyer (July to December 1985 and January to September 1987) and later Douglas Edwards and Charles Osgood, until leaving to anchor NBC News at Sunrise in 1990. Osgood would remain on the job until June 1992, paired with Victoria Corderi (April 1990–August 1991), Giselle Fernández (to February 1992), and Meredith Vieira (for the remainder of Osgood's term). After Vieira left in March 1993, the turnover continued, as shown below:
| Media offices | ||
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| Preceded by Michelle Gielan |
CBS Morning News anchor 2008–2010 |
Succeeded by incumbent |
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