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CBS Early Show...take all of it or none

kenwood101 said:
Time for FOX to get into the Morning News game

Notice they're not even in the network news game...

bpatrick: For awhile, WHLL/27, the Univision station in Boston used to air "Another World" for awhile because WBZ replaced it with alternate programming. This was early 90's or so.
 
genius said:
I have to say I do like Harry Smith... :)

CBS has never had any success with a morning show ever, at least not since the days of doing hard news in the morning. From that ridiculous thing with Bob Saget and Mariette Hartley to Phyllis George's terrible journalism, it caused the show much disgrace. The likeable attempts of Swayer&Kuralt, Maria Shriver's stint and Smith&Zahn all failed miserably, and of course the Bryant Gumbel stunt failed too.

The only time CBS This Morning ever got a leg up was when it passed GMA in the ratings when GMA was suffering through the Lisa McRee/Kevin Newman period, even at a time when many, many of the stations were pre-empting the first hour of it. Even we did that one, and I also know CBS O&O KCNC did as well!

However, once the Early Show launched, most of the stations that were pre-empting This Morning's first hour carried both hours of The Early Show at CBS' demand. But of course some never complied and some have started pre-empting again, at a time when networks are more aggressive than ever in curbing pre-emptions.

There was a relatively brief time in the 80's when the CBS Morning News overtook Today for the #2 slot. I remember that Jane Pauley sent flowers to Diane Sawyer or Phyllis George (whoever was the co-anchor at the time). So, CBS has perservered for a time in the am's.
 
Answers to two posts:

1. I haven't had the misfortune of watching WTOC,
so I won't even begin to question anyone's opinion
of their newscast (or anything else about their operation).
I just think that, since they are carrying both hours of
The Early Show (although it's 8-10 AM), they won't be
affected by the CBS mandate.

2. It's been a few years but I remember now that WBZ,
when it was an NBC affiliate, didn't carry Another World,
and it did indeed end up on a UHF in Boston. Thanks for
reminding me. Meantime, WBZ may not be trying to get
rid of Guiding Light, but you wouldn't know it after they
moved it from 10 AM to 9 AM last fall. But I'll hold my
thoughts unless and until Channel 4 does drop it, which
I really don't expect to happen.
 
Hi everyone:
bpatrick said:
I wonder how many CBS affiliates that carry only
the second hour of The Early Show will drop it
altogether and add another hour of local news?
My thoughts exactly. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that such a revolt would prompt CBS to cancel The Early Show & FINALLY get out of the morning news business altogether.
Also, what is this about a soap in Boston on a
Spanish-language channel? I know Bold And
The Beautiful transmits in SAP, but my first
assumption is that WBZ is trying to get rid
of Guiding Light. What's the story?
With the ratings the show is getting now, I doubt that will ever happen.

Just my opinion :D

Cheers :D
 
Brian Donegan said:
What about doing a local news on the HD subchannel? Or move The Early Show to the subchannel instead?

Lack of cable/satellite carriage. While stations that elect retransmit consent can mandate DT subchannels be carried as a condition of carrying the main feed on cable systems, it cannot be done on satellite at this time (satellite capacity issues).

In the end, I suspect many of these stations will just go local 7-9 AM.
 
I have to wonder if WISH-TV here in Indianapolis might just move the entire CBS Early Show to co-owned MyNDY, where it would only displace some infomercials, Jack Hanna (E/I) (could move to a weekend block) and Little House on the Prairie. They have previously done this in special cases of local breaking news or severe weather, when they chose to stay local until 8 or 9 AM on WISH.

In addition, MyNDY already carries the Saturday Early Show, and has for quite a while now.
 
anotherguy said:
Maybe it's time to bring back Captain Kangaroo... ;D

At least the Captain had viewers.

If CBS wants to save money just dump their so-called early morning failure and allow affiliates to run their own local news programs.

As for bringing back Paula Zahn; why?

If Don Imus is about to return to broadcasting, as rumors have it, CBS should talk to him about doing a morning show. At least it would be different that the clones offered by ABC and NBC.
 
The Early Show really is the most painful of the 3 to watch. I think the worst part is
Hannah: "... And now here's Harry talking to author Mary Higgins Clark"
Pukey Announcer: "Author Talk segment sponsored by Coffee Mate. Coffee's perfect mate."
Harry: "I'm talking to Marry Higgins Clark about her latest novel, The Shoe Fit..."

Other issues:
- Julie in L.A. doesn't work.
- The plaza setup they use is just lame.
- Lack of personality when Julie is in LA and Dave is in some hamlet doing the weather. Harry Smith isn't exactly a dynamic guy.
- Bad production ... watch the promo they stick in at the end of the Evening News.
 
I don't know how dynamic he is, but I've always liked Harry Smith...he's been the best part of "The Early Show" since he returned to morning TV. Hannah is borderline, and I could do without Julie Chen.

It seems to me that CBS News has met its worst failures (in the morning and evening) trying to copycat what the other networks are doing. Thirty years ago, CBS set the standard for network news. Nowadays, CBS News, as a whole, is pretty much an afterthought to most folks. "CBS Sunday Morning," "Face the Nation," and "60 Minutes" are still good, but they are remnants of what used to be. The weekday broadcasts are pretty much a joke.

I agree with the above poster who suggested bringing back reruns of "Captain Kangaroo." Give 7-8AM to the affiliates, and put the Captain on from 8 to 9. Running 5 hours of the Captain a week will more than cover the affiliates' E/I requirements, then they can run local news and/or infomercials all morning long on Saturday.
 
SteveRichards said:
I agree with the above poster who suggested bringing back reruns of "Captain Kangaroo." Give 7-8AM to the affiliates, and put the Captain on from 8 to 9. Running 5 hours of the Captain a week will more than cover the affiliates' E/I requirements, then they can run local news and/or infomercials all morning long on Saturday.
Unless you are talking about airing the old series, bringing back the Captain might prove to be difficult since Bob Keeshan has been dead for years. I'm in agreement with the one poster who suggested having Don Imus on CBS. I enjoyed his program on MSNBC and it would be different than Good Morning America and The Today Show. Unfortunately the suits at Black Rock would never let Imus on prime time mornings for fear he might say something that would upset Rev. Al and Jesse.
 
The Voice of Reason said:
Unless you are talking about airing the old series, bringing back the Captain might prove to be difficult since Bob Keeshan has been dead for years.

As that poster implied:

SteveRichards said:
I agree with the above poster who suggested bringing back reruns of "Captain Kangaroo."
 
Nice idea to make CBS so isolated in the morning that its news department could end up doing little more than what the Statler Brothers sang in their hit song "Flowers on the Wall" more than 40 years ago, which Eric Weatherly remade in 2000....

♪ Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo/Now don't tell me/I've nothing to do ♪
 
azumanga said:
The Voice of Reason said:
Unless you are talking about airing the old series, bringing back the Captain might prove to be difficult since Bob Keeshan has been dead for years.

As that poster implied:

SteveRichards said:
I agree with the above poster who suggested bringing back reruns of "Captain Kangaroo."

Even a dead Bob Keeshan would bring in more viewers than the current team hosting the CBS Early Morning Show. ::)

CBS owns the rights to Captain Kangaroo and it is highly doubtful that the "brains" at Black Rock would air repeats of a show that started airing in the 1950s to compete against GMA and Today. I still agree with the poster who suggested bringing Don Imus on board.
 
I wasn't realistically serious about CBS putting reruns of the Captain back on in the morning. Although, I don't think the ratings would be any worse. I just think it's interesting that Keeshan was ultimately canceled to make room for a 2-hour "CBS Morning News," a broadcast that (with the exception of a few very brief periods) has been in the tank in its various incarnations ("The Morning Program," "CBS This Morning," "The Early Show") since it began. Back in the late 1980s, I remember reading an article somewhere (maybe it was in TV Guide) where the author suggested that maybe CBS should just run a movie in the morning.
 
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