CBS This Morning

CBS This Morning is an American morning television program that is broadcast on CBS. The program, which shares its title with a more traditionally formatted morning program that aired on the network from 1987 to 1999, airs Monday through Saturday. It airs live from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. in the Eastern Time Zone. On weekdays, it airs on tape-delay in the Central and Mountain Time Zones; stations in the Pacific Time Zone receive an updated feed with a specialized opening and updated live reports. Stations outside the Eastern Time Zone carry the Saturday broadcast at varied times. It is the tenth distinct morning news-features program format that CBS has aired since 1954, having replaced The Early Show on January 9, 2012.

The program emphasizes general national and international news stories and in-depth reports throughout each edition, although it also includes live in-studio and pre-taped interviews. The format was chosen as an alternative to the soft news and lifestyle-driven formats of competitors Today and Good Morning America following the first hour or half-hour of those broadcasts, in an attempt to give the program a competitive edge with its hard news format. (CBS has historically placed third in the ratings among the network morning shows.)

CBS This Morning (first incarnation) and The Early Show
The original incarnation of CBS This Morning made its debut on November 30, 1987, 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 stop affiliates from dropping the program, CBS increased the amount of time available during the broadcast for local stations, most of which air their own early morning newscasts before the national news program. Despite a far more successful team in Smith, Zahn and McEwen, CBS This Morning continued to languish in third place. It was, however, far more competitive than any of its predecessors. A new set and live format introduced in October 1995 had little effect on the ratings.[citation needed]

Smith and Zahn left the program on June 14, 1996, with CBS News correspondents Harold Dow and Erin Moriarty anchoring CBS This Morning for seven weeks until a new format was in place. In August 1996, the program was revamped again, as simply This Morning, with McEwen and Jane Robelot as co-hosts, news anchor Jose Diaz-Balart (succeeded by Cynthia Bowers, then Thalia Assuras, and finally Julie Chen) and Craig Allen (of WCBS-TV and WCBS-AM in New York City) serving as weather anchor.

A new format was created where local stations could opt to air their own newscast from 7 to 8 a.m. local time, interspersed with inserts from the national broadcast; the second hour of the national broadcast would then air uninterrupted from 8 to 9 a.m. Ratings went up slightly, and at one point in 1998 the program even moved ahead of Good Morning America. But its ratings success was also brief, and CBS announced its decision to cancel the program in early 1999. Robelot left This Morning in June 1999 after it was revealed that the program would be replaced. Assuras served as co-anchor and Chen as newsreader for the show's remaining five months. McEwen left the show at the end of September 1999 to prepare for the launch of The Early Show and was replaced by Russ Mitchell, who formerly conducted sports segments.

This Morning ended on October 29, 1999 after twelve years. It was replaced by The Early Show, which debuted the following Monday, November 1. Though it had occasional peaks in the ratings, The Early Showwas a perennial third-place finisher behind NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America. In its last year, The Early Show shied away from the news, features, light stories and "infotainment" approach used by the program since its debut, that it based off the formats of its two main competitors.

Devolopment and revival
On November 15, 2011, CBS News announced that The Early Show would be cancelled, and that the news division would overhaul its morning news program effective January 9, 2012. The news division's chairman Jeff Fager and president David Rhodes revealed at the official announcement that day that the revamped and retitled program would "redefine the morning television landscape" – meaning that rather than replicate the relaxed lifestyle-driven styles of Today and Good Morning America, the new format would feature a mix of "hard news" (a CBS News hallmark), analysis and discussion.[1]  On December 1, 2011, the title of the new show was revealed as CBS This Morning,[2] [3]  marking a return of the name to the morning newscast since 1999.

The founding executive producer of CBS This Morning was Chris Licht, who was hired by CBS in the spring of 2011 after serving as executive producer of MSNBC's morning news-discussion program Morning Joe. Licht's move to CBS led to speculation that Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski would follow Licht to CBS, as their contracts with MSNBC were set to expire;[4]  though Scarborough and Brzezinski confirmed contemplating offers from CBS and other networks, they signed a new contract with MSNBC out of a belief that their interview-intensive approach could not be duplicated on broadcast television.[5]

CBS instead tapped a trio of noted television veterans for the weekday edition of CBS This Morning: Early Show holdover Erica Hill, Gayle King and Charlie Rose. Licht describes Rose, who previously hosted CBS's former overnight news program CBS News Nightwatch (which was replaced by Up to the Minute and later CBS Overnight News) in the 1980s, and has also served as a part-time correspondent for occasional segments since 2008 on the long-running newsmagazine 60 Minutes, as "an incredible interviewer."[6] [7]

Licht promised an "outside the box" approach to CBS This Morning, insisting that the show would not include forced anchor banter, cooking segments, "comedic weather forecasters, [or] cheering fans on an outdoor plaza."[7] [8] [9]

Since rivival
On July 26, 2012, CBS announced that its Chief White House Correspondent Norah O'Donnell would replace Hill starting in September 2012. Hill was pulled from the program immediately after the announcement (an absence which was not explained on the broadcast),[10]  and was eventually released from her CBS contract (Hill joined NBC in November 2012, becoming a co-host of weekend editions of Today).

On November 20, 2017, Rose was fired by CBS following a report in The Washington Post in which eight women accused him of sexual harassment.[11]  King and O'Donnell addressed the issue on the show.[12]  In January 2018, it was announced that John Dickerson (moderator of Face the Nation) would join the program as the third co-anchor.[13]

On May 6, 2019, it was announced that Dickerson and O'Donnell would leave CBS This Morning, with Dickerson moving to 60 Minutes and O'Donnell to CBS Evening News. Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil were named as successors, and made their debuts on May 20, 2019, alongside King.[14]  O'Donnell's last day on the show was May 16, 2019 followed by John Dickerson on May 17, 2019.

​​​​​​​