The Early Show
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| The Early Show | |
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| Genre | News program, Live action, Talk show |
| Running time | 120 minutes (two hours) |
| Starring | Julie Chen (1999–present) Harry Smith (2002–present) Hannah Storm (2002–present) Rene Syler (2002–present) Dave Price (2003–present) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | November 2, 1999– |
The Early Show is an American television morning news talk show broadcast by CBS from New York City, 7 to 9 a.m. (8 to 9 a.m. in some markets with cut-ins during the 7 a.m. hour) (EST), Mondays through Fridays.
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[edit] Before The Early Show
[edit] The 1950s
Various incarnations of the morning news have been broadcast by CBS 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. until being reduced to one hour to accommodate the premiere of Captain Kangaroo in 1955). Additional hosts over the years included Jack Parr, John Henry Faulk, and Dick Van Dyke. Next came Good Morning! with Will Rogers, Jr., which lasted only fourteen months on the air before being replaced briefly by a morning variety hour headlined by Jimmy Dean.
[edit] The 1960s and 1970s
[edit] 1960s
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. 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, it was moved to 7:00 a.m. EST and a year later Los Angeles newsman Joseph Benti succeeded Wallace as anchor.
[edit] 1970s
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. The new hour format now featured John Hart reading the news from Washington and CBS News Moscow correspondent Hughes Rudd as an occasional contributor. After Hart replaced Benti as the main anchor in New York, the Washington anchor desk was assumed by Bernard Kalb until 1972 and Nelson Benton for a year after that. Then, in an effort to emulate The Today Show, Rudd was teamed up with former Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn on August 6, 1973. The pairing was a disaster, mainly due to Quinn's lack of television experience. Quinn was gone after six months, leaving after the February 1, 1974 telecast. Bruce Morton later took over the Washington desk, remaining there until 1977. That same year, Rudd would voluntarily step down from the anchor desk to return to feature reporting; the anchor desk was subsequently assumed by the team of Lesley Stahl and Richard Threlkeld.
[edit] The Morning Era
On January 29, 1979, CBS revamped the program premiering Morning, which was a daily version of Sunday Morning (Monday Morning, Tuesday Morning, etc.), to compete with Good Morning America and The Today Show. Originally it was anchored by Bob Schieffer, but Sunday Morning host Charles Kuralt took over the daily show as well in the fall of 1980. Still, 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 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.). 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 CBS Morning News title. An understandably exhausted Kuralt was relieved of his duties on the weekday broadcasts in March 1982. WBBM-TV anchorman Bill Kurtis took over as co-host.
[edit] The 1980s
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By the fall of 1982, Captain Kangaroo had disappeared from the daily schedule and the team of Bill Kurtis and Diane Sawyer were anchoring an astounding three hours of news in the morning, as they were also seen on the CBS Morning News. The pairing also worked wonders for the ratings, albeit briefly: 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 again. 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 took Sawyer's place, alternating 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 two-week trial run. Unfortunately, like Sally Quinn before her, George turned out to be a disastrous choice. There was no chemistry between her and Kurtis onscreen (in fact, they reportedly never got along off-camera either), and it was obvious that she had no news experience at all. The low point of her very brief tenure came on May 14, 1985, when she interviewed rape victim Cathleen Crowell Webb and the man 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. George was blasted by critics, helping to put an unpleasant close to George's television career at that point. Subsequently, a very unhappy Bill Kurtis resigned from CBS News in July and returned to Chicago and his old anchor spot at WBBM-TV. Once again Bob Schieffer served as a brief replacement. Phyllis George eventually left CBS for good that fall.
For a year after that, Forrest Sawyer and Maria Shriver co-anchored the CBS Morning News until August 1986, when the network announced that the still-unsuccessful show would be put under the entertainment division as part of another drastic format change. In the interim, Bruce Morton returned to briefly share the duties with Early Morning News anchor Faith Daniels until the new format was ready.
[edit] The Morning Program
On January 12, 1987, The Morning Program made its debut[1] hosted by actress Mariette Hartley and New York newsman Rolland Smith. Mark McEwen handled the weather, while Bob Saget did comedy; 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[2][3] 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.
[edit] CBS This Morning
CBS This Morning made its debut in November 30, 1987, with hosts Harry Smith, former GMA news anchor Kathleen Sullivan, and Morning Program holdover Mark McEwen. Sullivan would be replaced by Paula Zahn on February 26, 1990. Beginning October 26, 1992, in an effort to stop affiliates from dropping the program, CBS allowed more participation from local stations. (Most affiliates have their own early morning newscast, which precedes the national news.) Despite a far more successful pairing in Smith, Zahn, and McEwen, CBS This Morning remained stubbornly in third place, and a brand new set and live format introduced in October 1995 proved less helpful.
[edit] This Morning
In August 1996, the show was revamped again, as simply This Morning. Mark McEwen again remained on the show replacing Harry Smith as co-anchor in 1996, sharing the job with Jane Robelot, who replaced Zahn, and anchor Jose Diaz-Balart (succeeded by Cynthia Bowers and later Thalia Assuras, both anchors of the Morning News). Also, a new system was created where many of the local stations air their own newscast from 7 to 8 a.m., with inserts from the national broadcast. Then from 8 to 9 a.m., affiliates air the second-half of the national broadcast uninterrupted. Ratings went up slightly, and at one point the show even moved ahead of Good Morning America in 1998. But it was also a brief ratings success, and This Morning became the immediate predecessor to The Early Show.
[edit] The Early Show's First Years
The Early Show began on November 1, 1999 when CBS executives successfully lured former Today Show host Bryant Gumbel to head up the broadcast, teamed with newcomer Jane Clayson. The show was completely revamped, and affiliates were asked to carry the entire 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. [4] Gumbel left in 2002[5], and shortly thereafter Clayson and McEwen were replaced by the current team of four. To keep affiliates happy, CBS went back to the local/national hybrid format which still exists today. [6] Julie Chen was the only holdover from the original cast. The show also has 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. 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.
Note as of August 27, 2006: In November 2005, Mark McEwen [7], while news anchor at Central Florida TV station channel 6, suffered a stroke [8]. According to a posting by the station manager on August 15, 2006, Mark is still recovering but is expected back to work on a limited basis in the near furture [9].
Much like NBC's The Today Show and The Tonight Show, the title The Early Show is analogous to that of CBS' late-night talk show, The Late Show.
[edit] Present
The current hosts are Julie Chen, Harry Smith, Hannah Storm, news anchor Russ Mitchell and weatherman Dave Price. Susan Koeppen (2004- ) is the consumer correspondent. The Early Show features celebrity interviews and light entertainment and news pieces. It usually places third in the ratings behind NBC's The Today Show and ABC's Good Morning America. In recent years, it has improved in the ratings, but not enough to win in the time period against the two other morning shows, who are both trying to win first place.
The Early Show's theme song was an instrumental version of Sting's 1999 hit, Brand New Day until late October 2006, where it would be replaced by the CBS Evening News theme.
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 simliar 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). This move has completed the rollout of the new look and music on all CBS News productions.
On December 4, 2006, it was announced that Rene Syler would leave the show by the end of the month. On December 7, 2006, CBS News named Russ Mitchell the news anchor. Other anchor changes are possible in the near future.
The show will get a set/graphics upgrade by the beginning of 2007.
[edit] The Saturday Early Show
The Saturday Early Show premiered in September 1997 as CBS News Saturday Morning. It is currently co-hosted by Russ Mitchell and Tracy Smith; Ira Joe Fisher provides weather reports. The show features news and lifestyle segments, including Chef on a Shoestring (a cooking segment) and The Second Cup Cafe (a music segment).
The Saturday Early Show is broadcast live beginning at 7:00 a.m. EST from the GM Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City, across the street from Central Park. However, it airs at different times depending on the local affiliate.
CBS News Sunday Morning has existed for years and pre-dates The Early Show.
[edit] Trivia
- Although CBS has been the perennial third-place finisher in the morning race since 1976, it has placed second a few times in the past 30 years. CBS beat Good Morning America for second place the week of January 17, 1977, and the week of December 28, 1998. The Today Show was in first place both times. However CBS did place ahead of The Today Show for second spot, for a few weeks in 1984 when Jane Pauley was on maternity leave. At that time Good Morning America was in first place. [10]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ DEBUT OF 'MORNING PROGRAM' ON CBS
- ^ THE MORNING PROGRAM CBS; Weekdays, 7:30-9 a.m. EST
- ^ CBS cancels its latest breakfast-time flop
- ^ Gumbel's "The Early Show" Bombs in Ratings (html). cnsnews.com (2000). Retrieved on 2000-03-31.
- ^ Gumbel leaving 'Early Show,' CBS
- ^ Better Early Than Never (html). tvguide.com (2006). Retrieved on 2006-03-30.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ Good Morning America' drops to third in ratings (html). dodgeglobe.com (1999). Retrieved on 1999-01-08.
[edit] External links
- The Early Show website
- The Saturday Early Show website
- The Early Show at the Internet Movie Database
- The Early Show at the Internet Movie Database (The CBS Morning News)
- The Early Show at the Internet Movie Database (Morning)
- The Early Show at the Internet Movie Database (The Morning Progam)
- The Early Show at the Internet Movie Database (CBS This Morning)
- Jump The Shark - The Early Show
