Charlie Rose and Gayle King will be part of a new morning television show on CBS. They’ll be part of a complete makeover of “The Early Show,” the network’s low-rated 7AM morning show. The network is putting the finishing touches on a two-hour news show (expected to be announced in NYC 11/15) that will “defy the gauzy conventions of morning television,” according to the NY Times. The show, which may or may not keep The Early Show name, will emphasize hard news and use a conversational approach like “Morning Joe” on MSNBC and “The View” on ABC.
Starting sometime early next year, Rose, King and other new hires will join two of the current co-hosts, Erica Hill and Jeff Glor, on a new set that is being built on the West Side. More than half a dozen CBS staff members described the plan on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss it publicly yet.
Neither Rose, who hosts the long-running interview series “Charlie Rose” on PBS, nor King, who hosts a morning talk show on OWN, the cable channel of her best friend, Oprah Winfrey, are proven ratings draws.
The two who took over CBS News early this year — the “60 Minutes” producer Jeff Fager (chairman), and the former Fox News executive David Rhodes (president), have steered the news division in a more serious direction. They’ve have cited ratings gains on the third-place “CBS Evening News” and Sunday’s “Face the Nation” as evidence that it is working. “The Early Show,” however, is down 6% this fall from the same time period last year.
