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

[toby]

Here is a radical concept - a hard news show in the morning.
No fluff, no concerts, no interviews promoting books or movies, no fashion tips, no goofy weatherman, etc.
It would no doubt be cheaper to produce and would be different enough to get some viewers who are tired of all the morning show crap.

 

[Mainedude2007]

and no ratings...........hard news works in the evening, but not when you're just getting up and having a cup of coffee

 

[SteveRichards]

Well, since CBS has no ratings in the morning to begin with, doing hard news in the morning wouldn't hurt them...at least they'd be doing something different. And speaking of evening news, maybe CBS should try going back to hard news in the evening instead of trying to do a 30-minute version of "Today" with Katie. "The CBS Evening News" should have been handed over to Bob Schieffer or John Roberts back in the 1990s.

As I stated earlier, CBS News' heyday was when it was a hard-news organization. CBS News has slowly gone to pot over the years in its attempts to go soft and through silly anchoring and programming gimmicks (Phyllis George in the morning, pairing Connie Chung with Dan Rather, putting Bryant Gumbel on in the morning, "The Morning Program" as a whole, letting Dan Rather stay on in the evening for at least 10 years too long, hiring Katie Couric, etc., etc.). When is CBS News going to learn that being a soft-news outfit and stealing top NBC talent doesn't work for them? Didn't they notice the uptick when they had Bob Schieffer on in the evening, and that viewers appreciated his seriousness and sincerity? CBS News is like a stubborn small child that never learns its lesson.

 

[Mark Giardina]

If CBS wants ratings put Don Imus and his crew on mornings and let them do their "thing" like they did on MSNBC for all those years: Minus the racial jokes of course.

What does CBS have to lose?

 

[KTN Corp]

Here is a radical concept - a hard news show in the morning.
No fluff, no concerts, no interviews promoting books or movies, no fashion tips, no goofy weatherman, etc.
It would no doubt be cheaper to produce and would be different enough to get some viewers who are tired of all the morning show crap.

Something like the CBS Morning News back in the 60's and 70's? Fast paced so you can grab your coffee and go. CBS is really good at hard news.

 

[Markxxx]

CBS head honchos have always blamed "The Captain" on getting a late start into the morning news game and that is why CBS is behind.

Or so goes one theory.

 

[bpatrick]

A hard news show in the morning. Yep, sure does
sound like the 1965-81 CBS Morning News. And
the joke at the time was that it had an audience
of one: William Paley. CBS tried everything: low-
key John Hart, who did the news in his shirtsleeves
until Paley called him on it; cranky Hughes Rudd (who
probably reflected how most of us feel at 7 AM) and
untried and out-of-her-element Sally Quinn (remember
her?); Lesley Stahl and Richard Threlkeld, no match for
Tom and Jane on NBC or David Hartman and Nancy
Dussault (or Joan Lunden) on ABC.

So scratch any idea of the old CBS Morning News being
revived.

 

[trusty]

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.

We need Don Imus back AS Captain Kangaroo with Rev. Al and Jesse as Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Greenjeans. Add 5 min. of hard news at the top of the hour.

There you go.

 

[rwells2265]

We need Don Imus back AS Captain Kangaroo with Rev. Al and Jesse as Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Greenjeans. Add 5 min. of hard news at the top of the hour.

There you go.

Now THAT'S a morning show I'd go out of my way to watch. Add Howard Stern as requisite 'goofy weatherman', and you'd have the perfect Today-killer!

CBS has nothing to lose .... heck, simulcasting "John Boy & Billy" would be an improvement over whatever morning-show-of-the-week they've had since disco was king.

--Russell

 

[Mark Giardina]

Here's a better scenario.

Keith Richards as the Captain.

Rosie O'Donnell as Ms. Greenjeans

Paris Hilton as Bunny Rabbit

Jillian Barbarie can do weather reports and Tom Cruise can jump and down on a couch while reading the news.

For social commentary CBS could hire what's left of the original cast of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

And for sports, who else but Leon Spinks.

 

[trusty]

And for sports, who else but Leon Spinks.

Classic touch. ;D

 

[MBird]

They need to make all the CBS morning shows as good as CBS Sunday Morning, and people might watch. (I realize that was the original setup once, and Sunday Morning is the only one that survived that particular incarnation)

 

[SteveRichards]

I remember when the CBS morning show on weekdays had the same format as "Sunday Morning," or at least the same set. I don't know to what extent the actual format of "Sunday Morning" carried over to the weekday show (my local CBS affiliate at the time didn't carry "Sunday Morning") and being just a kid at the time, I didn't pay that much attention to the news programming. But I have a feeling the weekday show probably didn't have the long feature segments like "Sunday Morning," and was actually, content-wise, very similar to the typical breakfast format that we're all so familiar with. If someone remembers differently, please chime in. But I think CBS was just trying to hit it big on weekdays by putting Charles Kuralt on the "Sunday Morning" set.

 

[bpatrick]

You're referring to "Morning," with the appropriate
day of the week put in the title ("Monday Morning,"
"Tuesday Morning," etc.). It did have the leisurely
pace of "Sunday Morning," which was its Achilles
heel. There were, IIRC, some long pieces which
people simply didn't have time to watch on a weekday.
I recall the critics skewered CBS to that effect: the
broadcast was too slow for weekdays.

 

[MBird]

Well, if they can't put Captain Kangaroo or Charles Kuralt back on, then the only answer is to pair NBC refugees Don Imus and Katie Couric for a morning talk show. With Mark McEwen as the eternal CBS weatherman!

I can see it now . . . Katie and Don sitting on a couch shaped like the CBS eye, trying to make politically correct conversation with features editor Rev. Al Sharpton.

Oh, we know what they'll do, it's CBS...

"CSI: The Early Show"

 

[formeraa]

You're referring to "Morning," with the appropriate
day of the week put in the title ("Monday Morning,"
"Tuesday Morning," etc.). It did have the leisurely
pace of "Sunday Morning," which was its Achilles
heel. There were, IIRC, some long pieces which
people simply didn't have time to watch on a weekday.
I recall the critics skewered CBS to that effect: the
broadcast was too slow for weekdays.

Exactly. Charles spoke VERRRRRY SLLLOOOOWWWWLLLLYYYYY on Sunday Morning as well as the weekday version. BTW, the weekday version with just labelled "Morning with Charles Kuralt and (later) Diane Sawyer".

 

[SteveRichards]

Actually, IIRC, the show was called "Monday Morning," "Tuesday Morning," "Wednesday Morning," etc. in its original hour-long version when it replaced the then-"CBS Morning News" at 7AM. At that time, "Captain Kangaroo" still aired at 8AM. I believe the title was changed to just "Morning" when the show expanded to 90 minutes, but didn't start until 7:30. At that time, the Captain was moved to 7AM, his show was retitled "Wake Up with the Captain," and it was cut to 30 minutes.