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The Early Show

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This article is about the current CBS morning news program. For the program debuting January 2012, see CBS This Morning.

The Early Show
GenreNews program
Presented byWeekday Edition
Chris Wragge (2011–2012)
Erica Hill (2011–2012)
Jeff Glor (2011–2012)
The Saturday Early Show
Russ Mitchell (2011–2012)
Rebecca Jarvis (2011–2012)
Betty Nguyen (2011–2012)
Lonnie Quinn (2006–2012)
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons13
No. of episodes3,578
Production
Executive producerBatt Humphreys
Running time120 minutes (two hours)
Production companyCBS News Productions
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseNovember 1, 1999 –
January 7, 2012

The Early Show was an American breakfast television show broadcast by CBS from New York City. The program aired live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday in the Eastern time zone; most affiliates in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones aired the show on tape-delay from 7 to 9 a.m. local time. The Saturday edition aired live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time as well, but a number of affiliates aired it later on tape-delay. The Early Show featured news pieces, weather, celebrity interviews and light entertainment. In some markets, the Saturday version may not air. Having premiered on November 1, 1999, it is the youngest of the major networks' morning shows, although CBS has made several attempts to program in the morning slot since 1954. The show aired as a division of CBS News.

The Early Show, like many of its predecessors, traditionally ran last in the ratings to its rivals, NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America. Much like NBC's The Today Show and The Tonight Show, the title The Early Show was analogous to that of CBS's late-night talk show, The Late Show.

On November 15, 2011, CBS announced that a new morning show will premiere in the same time slot as The Early Show on January 6, 2012. CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and CBS News president David Rhodes stated that the new show will "redefine the morning television landscape." On December 1, it was announced that the new show will be titled CBS This Morning, and that The Early Show ended its twelve-year run on January 6, 2012, to make way for the program.[1] Charlie Rose, Gayle King, and Erica Hill have been named anchors of the new program.

History

Gumbel, Clayson, McEwen and Chen (1999-2002)

The Early Show began on November 1, 1999 (around the time Viacom purchased CBS) when CBS executives successfully lured former Today Show host Bryant Gumbel to head up the broadcast, teamed with newcomer Jane Clayson. It replaced CBS This Morning. The show was completely revamped, and affiliates were asked to carry the two-hour broadcast in its entirety as the original This Morning format was abandoned. Mark McEwen once again did the weather, and Julie Chen read the news. Ratings were not encouraging, and were actually lower than the show it had replaced, CBS This Morning.[2] Gumbel left in 2002,[3] and shortly thereafter Clayson and McEwen were replaced. Clayson may be best known for her awkward confrontation with Early Show food and style contributor Martha Stewart during this period, described below.

Smith, Storm, Chen, Syler, and Price (October 2002-December 2006)

The new team consisted of Chen, former Biography and CBS This Morning host Harry Smith, former NBC Sports commentator Hannah Storm, Rene Syler (a news anchor from KTVT, the CBS station in Dallas), and weatherman Dave Price, who was pried away from New York Fox affiliate WNYW and also was at WCBS-TV for some time after joining The Early Show. To keep affiliates happy, CBS went back to the local/national hybrid format.[4] The show also had a number of "correspondents" who do short segments on specific issues; Martha Stewart, Martha Quinn, Bobby Flay, and Bob Vila, among others, have been featured in this role. Susan Koeppen (2004-–) is the consumer correspondent.

As previously mentioned, Stewart's participation garnered headlines on June 25, 2002, due to her obsessively chopping vegetables for a salad while refusing to answer Clayson's questions regarding her stock fraud scandal – Stewart stopped contributing to the program after the appearance, which was immortalized in an NBC TV-movie of Stewart's life a few months later.

On October 30, 2006, The Early Show received a revamp, featuring new graphics (with a new blue and orange color scheme instead of blue and yellow) and music similar to those used on the CBS Evening News (which were also used starting in early October on Up to the Minute and the CBS Morning News). On December 4, 2006, it was announced that Rene Syler would leave the show by the end of the month (her last show was December 22).

Smith, Storm, Chen, Mitchell and Price (December 2006-December 2007)

On December 7, 2007, CBS News named Russ Mitchell the news anchor. On November 28, 2007, it was announced that Hannah Storm was leaving her co-anchor chair; her last day was December 7, 2007.

Smith, Rodriguez, Chen, Mitchell, and Price (January 2008-January 2010)

On December 5, 2007, CBS announced that Maggie Rodriguez would succeed Storm as co-anchor. On January 7, 2008, The Early Show debuted a new set. During the month of December, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric shared its studio/set with The Early Show. In addition, the show abandoned the aforementioned local/national hybrid format and replaced it with a national format, similar to its network competitors. The ratings for the series dropped with the institution of these changes. However, the gap between The Early Show and second-place GMA has remained virtually consistent as all three morning shows have seen similar ratings erosion.[5]

On April 16, The Early Show scored a coup with the broadcast of British pop music sensation Susan Boyle singing live for an American TV audience. Not surprisingly, The Early Show enjoyed a relatively successful May sweeps, racking up a 5 percent increase in year-to-year total viewers and remaining flat in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic, at a time when both NBC's Today Show and ABC's Good Morning America were shedding viewers to the tune of 3 and 4 percent respectively.[6][7]

Howard Kurtz's WaPo profile of CBS Early Show co-host Maggie Rodriguez says her addition to the program accounts for "an uptick in the ratings, lifting spirits at the broadcast." In recent months, Rodriguez has landed some high-profile interviews with the Caylee Anthony grandparents, Levi Johnston, and disgraced former Miami priest, Alberto Cutié. The scandal beat might not be her favorite, but Rodriguez understands that it's often what her audience gets excited about: "If I were to program a show for my viewing pleasure, I would make it all news", said Rodriguez. "But we're programming for all of America. We have to include Jon and Kate [Gosselin] — regardless of whether I personally care, they're on the cover of every magazine. You can't be so highbrow that you only cover hard news. I'm not a journalistic snob."

In addition to her morning show duties, the Miami transplant had also regularly been filling in as an anchor for CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.[8]

On January 13, 2010, CBS announced that news anchor Russ Mitchell would exit The Early Show at the end of the week, leaving a gap in the lineup for the perennially third-place CBS morning show. He became the national correspondent for CBS and would continue to be the anchor of the Sunday edition of the CBS Evening News.

Smith, Rodriguez, Chen, Hill and Price (January 2010-December 2010)

During this period, Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez anchored with weather forecasts presented by Dave Price, additional features by Julie Chen and news updates by Erica Hill.

The Early Show began broadcasting in high definition on April 26, 2010, becoming the last morning network news/talk program to do so. The Evening News control room was be used, as construction was under way for The Early Show's new control room at the General Motors Building.[9] New graphics were now overlaid to accommodate added screen space, and were also used throughout other CBS News programs.

Wragge, Hill, Glor, and Castro (January 2011-September 2011)

Erica Hill and Chris Wragge (who previously anchored the Saturday edition) have anchored the weekday Early Show since January 3, 2011. Marysol Castro became the show's new weather anchor, replacing Dave Price. Julie Chen remained a part of the team, presenting additional features with Jeff Glor as news anchor, replacing Erica Hill. Chen was the only member to stay with the program since its inception before leaving the full time anchor position to host The Talk in late 2010. She remained with the early news program as a Special Contributing Anchor.

On March 2011, The Early Show debuted a redesigned set. The new set included a new anchor desk backdrop, a new reporter area, and a blue color scheme.

On September 2, 2011, it was announced that Marysol Castro would be leaving her post as weather anchor effective immediately.[10]

Wragge, Hill and Glor (September 2011-January 2012)

Since Marysol Castro's departure, the hosts cut directly to local CBS affiliates for forecasts (with a voiceover national outlook for stations without newscasts), making CBS the only one of the three major broadcast morning shows without national forecasts.[11] Castro will remain with CBS News for now in an undetermined role.

Since 2011, the program has focused on hard news in contrast to the other breakfast television shows that show a mix of hard news, lighter news, and infotainment. Coverage consisted of national and international news, including occasional town halls with political leaders and in-depth coverage of major events.[12]

On November 15, 2011 CBS News announced the Early Show would be cancelled and replaced by CBS This Morning beginning Monday, January 9.[13] The new show will be hosted by Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Erica Hill.

The final edition of The Early Show aired on Saturday, January 7, 2012 (as "The Saturday Early Show") and was hosted from the set of the CBS Evening News at CBS Broadcast Center. The final Saturday Early Show was hosted by Rebecca Jarvis, John Miller, news anchor Betty Nguyen and weather anchor Lonnie Quinn. Quinn is the final weather anchor to serve for The Early Show, The weekend team will remain for CBS This Morning Saturday beginning January 14, 2012.

On-air staff

Anchors

News anchors

Weather anchors

Saturday edition

The Saturday edition of The Early Show premiered on September 13, 1997 as CBS News Saturday Morning. As of 2008, The Saturday Early Show no longer carries a separate name from the weekday edition, and is introduced simply as The Early Show. The program was broadcast live beginning at 7:00 a.m. ET/6:00 a.m. CT on Saturday mornings from the GM Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City, across the street from Central Park. It aired at various times through the country on most CBS stations. However, depending on the time zone it may or may not air (some CBS affiliates skipped the Saturday morning edition for local newscasts, and some pushed up the timeslot of the Saturday morning children's program block after the newscast if it ended before 9:00 a.m. in order to make up for it).

The format allowed for news and weather cut-ins; not all affiliates provided local coverage. Viewers at stations that did not provide coverage saw informal conversation among the anchors during the news cut-ins and a series of graphics showing the weather in various cities during the weather cut-ins. Ira Joe Fisher and, initially, Lonnie Quinn, would read some of the forecast aloud while chatting with people in the audience outside the building. The graphics now run with bed music and no voice-over.

Until the weekday shake-up at the end of 2010, it was anchored by Chris Wragge of WCBS and Erica Hill.[14] Beginning January 8, 2011 Russ Mitchell returned to co-anchor with Rebecca Jarvis while WCBS' chief weathercaster Lonnie Quinn continued as weather anchor and CBS Morning News anchor Betty Nguyen served as news anchor and coanchored one Saturday a month.

Anchors for the program have included Russ Mitchell (1997–2007, 2011), Susan Molinari (1997–1998), Dawn Stensland (1998–1999), Thalia Assuras (1999–2002), Gretchen Carlson (2002–2005), Tracy Smith (2005–2007), Maggie Rodriguez (2007–2008), Jeff Glor (2007), Chris Wragge, (2007–2010) Erica Hill (2008–2010) and weather anchor Ira Joe Fisher (1999–2006)

Unlike its competitors The Today Show and Good Morning America, The Early Show did not carry a Sunday edition, nor were there any plans for one in the near future, due to the continued success of CBS News Sunday Morning, which has a distinctly different format with long form journalism reports and in-depth interview segments.

On-air staff

Weather anchor

Ratings

CBS has been the perennial third-place finisher in the morning race since 1976, placing second only a few times in the past 30 years. CBS beat Good Morning America for second place the weeks of January 17, 1977 and December 28, 1998. The Today Show was in first place both times. However, CBS outrated The Today Show for second spot over a few weeks in 1984 when Jane Pauley was on maternity leave. At that time, Good Morning America was ranked #1.[15]

In September 2007, CBS sought to change the third-place position of The Early Show by hiring Shelly Ross, former executive producer of GMA from 1999–2004. Significant changes were made to the program as Ross asserted her influence. For instance, the network no longer allows the frequent local station breaks that were previously allowed during the former broadcast as of January 7, 2008.[16] CBS reportedly views the removal of those breaks as vital to creating a national profile for the program.

However, some CBS affiliates continue to air the full program on another co-owned sister station and continue to air their local morning news; WWL-TV in New Orleans has never aired the Early Show or any of its previous versions, broadcasting all local newscasts instead, currently from 5 am to 9 am. The Early Show now airs in New Orleans on MyNetworkTV sister station WUPL, paired with The Daily Buzz. Cincinnati's WKRC-TV airs the full show on the CBS station with an hour of all-local news on their CW subchannel. Salt Lake City's KUTV (which was formerly owned by the network until 2007) continues to preempt the program's first hour despite the network's insistence. Tulsa's KOTV airs the full two hours starting at 8:00 AM and moves its last hour of their morning show to its CW sister station.

Industry insiders considered Shelley Ross' influence to be a serious threat to bring the profile of the show up to make the program a true competitor to NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America. After six months, Ross was fired from the position, after frequent feuds with staff, particularly Smith and Chen, who reportedly informed management that either Ross would have to go or they would.[17]

Despite the change in staff in 2011, the program remains mired in third place, averaging around 2–2.5 million average viewers per week.[18] The program has also faced pressure from management to take advantage of CBS News redefining itself more as a hard news organization after the end of the Katie Couric era, asking the program's staff to take advantage of stories presented on 60 Minutes and the CBS Evening News and expand on those stories in the morning time slot rather than following the lead as defined by Today and GMA to the letter.[19]

Theme music

The debut theme for The Early Show was a typical opener for an American morning news program. When the show reformatted with new hosts and set they used an instrumental version of Sting's 1999 hit, "Brand New Day" until late October 2006, when it was replaced by the CBS Evening News theme from James Horner. On January 7, 2008, CBS made an attempt to relaunch the show with new hosts and set plus an updated theme music that of the James Horner's composition. The theme was modified for a number of times since the reformat took launch. On June 27, 2011, CBS began using a slower-tempoed version of the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley theme for The Early Show. This theme was formerly used on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather between 1987 and 1991.

International broadcasts

In Australia, The Early Show airs on Network Ten weekday mornings from 4.00am under the title "The CBS Early Show", with Fridays edition being held over to the following Monday. A national weather map of Australia is inserted during local affiliate cut-aways for weather. No local news is inserted, however. America's top 3 breakfast television programs air in Australia almost simultaneously, with NBC Today airing on the Seven Network at 4.00am and Good Morning America on the Nine Network airing from 3.30 am. Unlike the above, The Early Show is not condensed or edited. It is, however, pre-empted in most regional areas for paid and religious programming.

Awards

In 2010, The Early Show was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for "Outstanding TV Journalism Segment" for the segment "Reverend's Revelation: Minister Speaks Out About Being Transgender" during the 21st GLAAD Media Awards.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ The New CBS News Morning Show Gets a Name: ‘CBS This Morning’, TVNewser, 1 December 2011
  2. ^ "Gumbel's "The Early Show" Bombs in Ratings". cnsnews.com. 2000. Archived from the original on December 7, 2000. Retrieved 2000-03-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ Gumbel leaving 'Early Show,' CBS
  4. ^ "Better Early Than Never". tvguide.com. 2006. Archived from the original on May 22, 2006. Retrieved 2006-03-30.
  5. ^ TV by the Numbers website
  6. ^ "The Zen Art of Early Show's Zev Shalev". The New York Observer. Observer.com. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
  7. ^ "Media Notes: Howard Kurtz on CBS 'Early Show' Co-Host Maggie Rodriguez". The Washington Post. July 13, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  8. ^ "Maggie Rodriguez filling in for Katie Couric"
  9. ^ Ariens, Chris (2010-04-20). "CBS 'Early Show' to go HD Monday - mediabistro.com: TVNewser". mediabistro.com. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
  10. ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/473208-Marysol_Castro_Leaving_The_Early_Show_.php
  11. ^ Fung, Katherine (9/2/2011). "Marysol Castro Leaving 'Early Show'". Huffington Post. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Stanley, Alessandra (October 7, 2011). "'The Early Show' on CBS Is Sober but Stronger". The New York Times.
  13. ^ "CBS News launching all-new morning broadcast". CBS News. November 15, 2011.
  14. ^ Michele Greppi (2008-09-22). "CNN's Hill to Co-Anchor CBS' 'Early Show' on Saturdays". TV Week. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  15. ^ "Good Morning America' drops to third in ratings". dodgeglobe.com. 1999-01-08.
  16. ^ NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - NewsChannel 5 This Morning From 7-8AM To Air On Cable Channel
  17. ^ Gough, Paul. "Shelly Ross fired from CBS Early Show". The Hollywood Reporter. 6 March 2008.
  18. ^ http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/03/17/%E2%80%9Cgood-morning-america%E2%80%9D-posts-largest-weekly-total-viewing-audience-in-4-years/86114
  19. ^ Ariens, Chris. "David Rhodes memo to CBS 'Early Show': 'Let's get with it'". 18 April 2011: TV Newser/Mediabistro.com. Retrieved 27 June 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  20. ^ "21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards - English Language Nominees". Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. 2010. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
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