CBS This Morning First Hour Pre-emption

[ding12]

I remember WJZ 13 in Baltimore, a CBS O&O, used to pre-empt the first hour of CBS Morning show (whatever the name was then) in the early 2000s. It was weird for the owned station to actively be pre-empting the network show every morning, first hour of the day. What kind of example was that for it's affiliates. But that has changed, not sure when, and if someone at CBS insisted for that to stop, or if it was just a judgment call from WJZ to scale back local news and carry the first hour from the network.

However, that practice apparently persists elsewhere now. KUTV (a non owned station) in Salt Lake City pre-empts the first hour currently. Is that the largest market with the pre-emption of the show? While not a top 20 market, UT has tourist appeal and a huge geographic region. Tourists visiting the area staying at a hotel or lodge miss the first hour. I'm surprised CBS doesn't pressure the affiliate to carry it, but maybe CBS doesn't really care.

Which other stations pre-empt the first hour? Any CBS affiliate pre-empt the show altogether? I figure if a station is pre-empting the first hour, which is supposed to be the better of the two morning hours, it might as well be pre-empt the show entirely. Who wants to tune in when it's much lighter in news coverage, and not seeing the opening part.

Lastly, Is the first or second hour of Today or GMA pre-empted anywhere for local news?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

CBS tried to get their affiliates to stop pre-empting "The Early Show" about 2006 after one of their anchor re-tools. (Possibly the one that added Hannah Storm?) Many did, including, I'm guessing, WJZ. I'm not aware of any CBS affiliates that currently preempt or delay "CBS This Morning"

 

[nathannah]

The biggest, most obvious case, isn't a pre-emption, but a surfase downgrade. Because WWL in New Orleans has a news department and schedule that gets double the ratings of their competitors, their morning newscast is the same and pretty much buries Today and GMA in the market. WWL certainly never wanted to change that, and the moment they got their hands on WUPL from CBS (UPN at the time, now MyNetworkTV), This Morning airs there rather than E/I schlock and infomercials and WWL has a full 5-9am local newscast. CBS hasn't objected, and everyone's happy in that situation.

 

[bpatrick]

WFMY rarely carried the "CBS Morning News" in its one-hour
(7-8 AM) form, but it was gospel that the station was going
to carry "Captain Kangaroo" (usually at 8; the station tried a
few times to carry it at 9 without success), so the "Good Morning
Show" led into "Captain Kangaroo." Given the fact that WFMY has
traditionally pre-empted 7-8 (except when CBS made its earliest
attempts at a morning show in the '50s), it was practically a given
that "The Early Show"/"CBS This Morning" would run at 8.

WNCT Greenville, NC used to have "Carolina Today" from 6 to 8 AM,
followed by the "CBS Morning News" at 8 and "Captain Kangaroo" at
9. When Media General bought the station they dropped "Carolina
Today," instituted a regular newscast from 5:30-7 (it may run longer
now), and moved "The Early Show"/"CBS This Morning" to 7.

And there were those that cut in and out between
CBS and their own newscasts between 7 and 8 before CBS began
requiring they take the full two hours. WLKY Louisville is one I recall
that did this.

Finally, WAGA was another that dropped CBS's morning show prior to
switching to Fox, which is where "Good Day Atlanta" came from. And
back in the early '80s it dropped "Captain Kangaroo" and replaced him
with Richard Simmons and--what seems like irony now--Charlie Rose.

 

[harrisburgpatv]

In the late '70s and early '80s, WHP in Harrisburg didn't carry the hour-long "CBS Morning News", or when it changed to "_______ Morning" (depending on the day of the week, of course). It opted for 2 hours of "PTL Club" (and later "Jim Bakker") from 7am-9am, and aired "Captain Kangaroo" at 9am instead of 8. During the September 1981 changes, WHP started airing the 7am-9am shows in pattern ("Wake up with the Captain" at 7, and "CBS Morning News" from 7:30-9), moving Jim Bakker to 9am, and has aired the 7am-9am CBS offerings since...

 

[w00t]

WNCT Greenville, NC used to have "Carolina Today" from 6 to 8 AM,
followed by the "CBS Morning News" at 8 and "Captain Kangaroo" at
9. When Media General bought the station they dropped "Carolina
Today," instituted a regular newscast from 5:30-7 (it may run longer
now), and moved "The Early Show"/"CBS This Morning" to 7.

In the '90s, WNCT ran Carolina Today from 6-8 and delayed CBS This Morning to 8-10 in its entirety. Afterwards they ran Live (not so much) with Regis and Kathy Lee from 10-11.

 

[FredLeonard]

At the time, CBS designed the first hour to be partly preempted. Stations could continue their morning shows with local hosts and local stories but join for major interview segments. The stations liked it. CBS News did not. So despite good numbers, the experiment ended. In some markets, local CBS morning shows continue on the CW station opposite the network show (with local news cut-aways simulcast on both). During the 4:30-7:00 am morning show and local cut-aways on the CBS station, hosts remind viewers that the local show continues over on the CW.

 

[Sammi Brie]

CBS tried to get their affiliates to stop pre-empting "The Early Show" about 2006 after one of their anchor re-tools.

Back in the '90s, CBS revamped the show to allow affiliates greater flexibility--especially with the first hour. Around that time, a few major-market affiliates had dropped it altogether; IIRC, those included Detroit's WJBK, Tampa's WTVT, and Boston's WHDH. (Ironically enough, all three of those stations would soon no longer be CBS affiliates--with New World-owned WJBK and WTVT going to Fox, and WHDH going to NBC in the wake of the CBS/Westinghouse deal.)

WJBK and WAGA were unusual in that they began to preempt low-rated CBS programs on a selective basis after it was announced that they would be switching to Fox.

 

[crainbebo]

At the time, CBS designed the first hour to be partly preempted. Stations could continue their morning shows with local hosts and local stories but join for major interview segments. The stations liked it. CBS News did not. So despite good numbers, the experiment ended. In some markets, local CBS morning shows continue on the CW station opposite the network show (with local news cut-aways simulcast on both). During the 4:30-7:00 am morning show and local cut-aways on the CBS station, hosts remind viewers that the local show continues over on the CW.

Happens on my local NBC and my IND station as well. KING 5 airs news from 4:30-7AM, when Today is joined in it's four-hour entirety. The anchors remind us that the news "continues on KONG 6/16" (the IND station) from 7-9AM, leading into the 700 Club at 9.

-crainbebo

 

[charlestondxman]

WTOC delays This Morning to 8-10 so they can do their local morning news, which dominates in that time slot. They're on 3 1/2 hours in the morning, 4:30-8. They used to start the morning news at 7 back in the mid 90s and ran their local news then.

I remember back in the late 90s WCSC used to go the cut-in route with This Morning. They'd run one or two segments of This Morning in the 7am hour, and mix that in with their local news.

Andrea Ferguson, Mike Hiott and Keith Nichols got huge ratings in the mornings (just like every other daypart on CBS here), and it helped This Morning do very well here. They stopped doing it when The Early Show began.

 

[crainbebo]

4:30AM news in a small market? Very interesting...

KIRO used to do a 7AM newscast back in the Early Show days c. 2000-05. They would only air an hour of the Early Show (the fluff portion at 8-9AM). They've aired the Early Show (and now CBS This Morning) in its entirety ever since.

-crainbebo

 

[firepoint525]

Probably in roughly the same time frame already mentioned here, the CBS affiliate here in Nashville (WTVF) "marbled" the 7:00 a.m. hour with a mix of the Early Show and their own local news. And I believe that it was indeed CBS itself that cracked down on affiliates doing this. But it was confusing to viewers, too. They would go to commercial break, and we would never know who, or what, would return on the other side of that break.

Now, Newschannel5 carries local news on their subchannel, locally known as "the plus," during the 7:00 a.m. hour, only returning to the main channel for the 7:25 and 7:55 newsbreaks. It is much less confusing for viewers now.

Ironically enough, on Saturday morning, it is the reverse of this, with local news on the main channel from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m., with the Saturday Early Show airing on "the plus."

 

[Austin]

I'm not aware of any CBS affiliates that currently preempt or delay "CBS This Morning"

I know of several that delay it one hour: WFMY in Greensboro, KGMB in Honolulu, and KOTV in Tulsa.

It also appears that KFDM in Beaumont, Texas does not air the first hour at all, but instead airs back to back showings of CBS Morning News. I live in Houston, but I can't pick up channels in Beaumont for some reason, so I don't this for sure. It could just be an error in TV Guide.

 

[harrisburgpatv]

4:30AM news in a small market? Very interesting...

Would you consider the area where I live a small market? (Harrisburg/York/Lancaster/Lebanon)

Here, the war is on.

WGAL-8 (NBC) starts their morning news at 4:30
WHP-21 (CBS) starts their morning news at 5AM
WHTM-27 (ABC) starts their morning news at 4:30
and..not to be outdone...(and this is the earliest I've seen anywhere yet....about a month ago...)
WPMT-43 (FOX) starts their morning news at *4AM*

 

[crainbebo]

4:30AM news in a small market? Very interesting...

Would you consider the area where I live a small market? (Harrisburg/York/Lancaster/Lebanon)

Here, the war is on.

WGAL-8 (NBC) starts their morning news at 4:30
WHP-21 (CBS) starts their morning news at 5AM
WHTM-27 (ABC) starts their morning news at 4:30
and..not to be outdone...(and this is the earliest I've seen anywhere yet....about a month ago...)
WPMT-43 (FOX) starts their morning news at *4AM*

Still waiting for the 4:30AM local news on KXGN Glendive, MT to start. ;D They have CBS This Morning from 6-8AM (!), Rachael Ray at 5AM (another !) and CBS Morning News at 4:30.

 

[charlestondxman]

Savannah is barely a top 100 market, so it is kind of strange. 3 1/2 hours of morning news on one station is a lot.

They make loads of money though with their news.

 

[bpatrick]

WRAL Raleigh has local news from 4:30-7 AM, then when "CBS
This Morning" comes on at 7, it hands off its local news to WRAZ
FOX50 for two more hours.

WAGA is another Fox station that starts at 4 AM; in their case they
go to 10 AM. Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point's Fox affiliate,
WGHP, goes almost the same route, airing news from 4:30-10 AM.

And I seem to recall both the "Today" show and whatever CBS was calling
its morning show airing from 6-8 AM in Birmingham. I know I recall Donahue
at 8 AM on NBC affiliate WVTM, and I think Regis and Kathie Lee were on
CBS affiliate WIAT at the same time.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Ironically enough, back in the '80s, a lot of non-Eastern Time affiliates carried its predecessors in that timeslot. I'm not sure how widespread the practice was, but I'm pretty sure that every affiliate in or near Wisconsin (with the obvious exception of O&O WBBM in Chicago) did so at some point during the decade.

WEHT-Evansville did this before starting their own morning show in the early-90s (WEVV continued the practice when WEHT switched to ABC and they got the CBS affiliation). Of course, 6-8AM CT is the actual live feed from New York, so viewers weren't seeing a tape-delayed broadcast like GMA and Today offered.

crainbebo on Yesterday at 11:16:09 PM
4:30AM news in a small market? Very interesting...

WFIE-Evansville (market 103) has had a 4:30 newscast for at least a decade, if not more. A move that pre-dates many many larger markets.

As to the pre-emptions by affiliates of the first hour of "CBS This Morning/The Early Show" it began when they blew up the Harry Smith/Paula Zahn team in favor of Jane Robelot and Jose Diaz-Balart (sp?). I think for the most part, they kept the newsmaker interviews in the second hour during that time.

When the show switched names to "The Early Show" in November 1999, they asked their affiliates to carry the full 2 hours but as far I can remember, didn't "force" them to.

According to a TVWeek article I found, it wasn't until the Harry Smith/Maggie Rodriguez revamp in 2008 that they actually began forcing the few remaininghold-outs to carry the full two hours instead of the blended version.

I wish I could find the article detailing when WWL-TV opted to drop the network morning show altogether, but I can't seem to. Wikipedia says it was in the late-80s, but I'm pretty sure it was sometime in the early 2000s (perhaps when CBS first began agitating to have their affiliates carry the full 2 hours of "The Early Show").

WAGA dropped "CBS This Morning" in the early 90s for their "Good Day" program well before they were sold to Fox. I recall visiting my Grandmother in Atlanta during the summer of 1992 or 1993 and WAGA was advertising the premiere of "Good Day" for the upcoming fall.