American breakfast television program
The Early Show is an American morning television show that aired on CBS from November 1, 1999 to January 7, 2012, replacing the original incarnation of "CBS This Morning", and the ninth attempt at a morning news-talk program by the network since 1954. The program originally broadcast from the General Motors Building in New York City.
"The Early Show", like many of its predecessors, traditionally placed third in the ratings, behind NBC's "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America". Much like "Today" and its fellow NBC program "The Tonight Show", the "Early Show" title was analogous to that of CBS's late-night talk show, "The Late Show". Unlike CBS' other attempts at a morning news program (which emphasize hard news), "The Early Show" followed the format of its two other competitors, which have long used a lighter soft news, lifestyle and infotainment approach.
On November 15, 2011, CBS announced the cancellation of "The Early Show", and replacement by a new morning program that CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and president David Rhodes stated would "redefine the morning television landscape." "The Early Show" ended its twelve-year run on January 7, 2012, replaced three days later on January 9 by the second version of "CBS This Morning".
History of CBS's morning news shows.
"The Morning Show" (1954).
CBS' first attempt at a morning program debuted on March 15, 1954, with The Morning Show, originally hosted by Walter Cronkite and very similar in format to "Today" (which also ran for two hours from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time until it was reduced to one hour to accommodate the premiere of "Captain Kangaroo" in 1955). Additional hosts over the years included Jack Paar, John Henry Faulk and Dick Van Dyke. Paar, the most successful of them in drawing an audience, made significant changes in the tone of the program during his tenure as host, casting it into a talk program with some infotainment elements but featuring an emphasis on humor and conversation, reminiscent of the kind of morning radio show he had done prior to World War II. In 1956, Paar was moved from "The Morning Show" to his own late-morning talk program on the network, which aired after "Captain Kangaroo". (Paar left CBS to take over NBC's "The Tonight Show" in 1957.)
"Good Morning! with Will Rogers Jr." and another "Morning Show".
Next came Good Morning! with Will Rogers Jr., which lasted for 14 months before being replaced in April 1957 by a different version of The Morning Show, a variety program hosted by country music singer Jimmy Dean, which ended that December after nine months. The 45-minute program aired at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time; it was followed by a 15-minute news program, the "CBS Morning News", anchored by Richard C. Hottelet, and later Stuart Novins, which led into "Captain Kangaroo" at 8:00 a.m.
"The CBS Morning News" (1963).
CBS did not make any serious attempt to program against "Today" for eight years. The CBS Morning News debuted on September 2, 1963; the program was similar in style to its "CBS Evening News" counterpart in that it was also a hard news-focused program, featuring various hosts and correspondents from CBS News over the years. It debuted as a half-hour broadcast anchored by Mike Wallace, who joined the network that year, and aired Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Coincidentally, it replaced the daytime magazine program "Calendar", which was hosted by Wallace's future "60 Minutes" colleague Harry Reasoner.
In August 1965, CBS decided it could get better ratings by airing reruns of "I Love Lucy" in the 10:00 a.m. slot. The network moved the "Morning News" to 7:05 a.m. (although most affiliates carried it at 7:30 a.m. on tape delay). Wallace only lasted one more year after the move. Wallace left the program to serve as co-host on the news magazine show "60 Minutes" (initially aired bi-weekly in September 1968), which saw him cover topics such as Richard Nixon's 1968 comeback presidential campaign.
Los Angeles newsman Joseph Benti was selected to replace Wallace. Notably, Benti was at a bar near the CBS Broadcast Center waiting for his shift to start as morning anchor on the early hours of June 6, 1968 when someone came onto the place to say that Robert F. Kennedy had been shot at midnight in California (which was 3:00 a.m in New York), necessitating having to try and get onto the air earlier than expected, complete with reports from Terry Drinkwater that saw Benti joined by Cronkite and Wallace midway through. It was during Joseph Benti's run (through August 28, 1970) that the program became the first regularly scheduled one-hour newscast on network television on March 31, 1969. Until 1981, it preceded "Captain Kangaroo" on CBS's morning schedule from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The new hour-long format featured John Hart reading the news headlines from Washington, D.C. and CBS News Moscow correspondent Hughes Rudd as an occasional contributor. After Hart replaced Benti as the main anchor in New York City, the Washington anchor desk was assumed by Bernard Kalb until 1972, and by Nelson Benton for a year afterwards. It was announced in May of 1973 that Benton and Hart would be replaced in midsummer.
In an effort to emulate "Today", which had Barbara Walters as a co-anchor, Rudd was teamed up with former "The Washington Post" reporter Sally Quinn, who received considerable publicity despite having no prior television experience. The broadcasts did little to shape the ratings beyond third place, with Quinn garnering little enthusiasm. In January of 1974, she was put off the anchor desk in favor of contributing "special features and interviews daily from Washington." Quinn left after the February 1, 1974 telecast. A more experienced correspondent, Bruce Morton, later took over the Washington desk, remaining there until 1977. During that period, the newscast evolved into a straightforward delivery of the morning news, much like Cronkite's evening newscast. Despite the anchor turnover through the years, the broadcast set a consistent tone which emphasized news and ideas over celebrity gossip or self-help tips. The latest news bureau of CBS News Washington correspondent Barry Serafin. Morton and Rudd were each awarded a Peabody Award for their work in 1976. The anchor desk was subsequently shared by the team of Lesley Stahl and Richard Threlkeld (who co-anchored the program from 1977 to 1979), while Morton and Rudd returned to provide feature reports and commentary; Rudd left in 1979 did a handful of reports for years.
The "Morning" (1979).
On Sunday, January 28, 1979, CBS revamped the program, premiering Morning, which was titled in accordance to the day of the week ("Monday Morning", "Tuesday Morning", etc.). The weekday "Morning" series competed with "Good Morning America" and "Today". Charles Kuralt hosted Sundays, while Bob Schieffer hosted the rest of the week; Kuralt took over the daily broadcasts as well starting on October 27, 1980. 
The program featured long-form pieces from CBS News bureaus, and many viewed it as a highbrow, classy newscast. Despite critical acclaim, the program remained dead last in the ratings, and CBS was under more pressure from affiliates to present a more viable morning competitor, particularly since the Sunday edition did better with viewers. So on September 28, 1981, "Morning" dropped the days of the week from its title (except for "CBS News Sunday Morning"), was extended to 90 minutes and added Diane Sawyer as co-host. In the process, "Captain Kangaroo" was reduced to a half-hour daily and pushed to an earlier time period (7:00 a.m.).
"The CBS Morning News" (1982).
On January 18, 1982, again at the expense of "Captain Kangaroo", "Morning" was expanded to the same two-hour format that "Today" and "GMA" were utilizing. Along the way it reassumed the title of The CBS Morning News (not to be confused with CBS's earlier morning newscast, the "CBS Early Morning News", later retitled as the "CBS Morning News"). Kuralt was replaced on the weekday broadcasts on March 15, 1982. By this time management decided that morning news programming should be more competitive and hired Bill Kurtis, anchor of the highly rated evening newscasts at WBBM-TV in Chicago, as Sawyer's co-host. The Sunday edition of "Morning", with Kuralt as host, was kept; it remains on the air under its original title, "CBS News Sunday Morning" (now hosted by Jane Pauley).
By the fall of 1982, "Captain Kangaroo" had disappeared from the daily schedule, and the new team of Kurtis and Sawyer were anchoring three hours of news in the morning, as they were also seen on the "CBS Early Morning News" an hour earlier.
Their teamwork helped boost the program's ratings, albeit briefly; George Merlis, a former "Good Morning America" producer hired to revamp the broadcast, is also credited by most network insiders with nearly doubling viewership numbers for "The CBS Morning News" by March 1983. The numbers continued to climb during the summer; during one week in August 1983, it passed "Today" for the second place spot behind "GMA", and was in closing distance behind the latter program for the #1 spot before it dropped back to third place again. After Merlis was relieved from his duties for his trouble, Sawyer, anxious to move on, left in the fall of 1984 to become the first female correspondent on "60 Minutes".
CBS News correspondents Jane Wallace and Meredith Vieira briefly alternated as interim co-host in an on-air try-out that lasted several months, but both were passed over for the permanent spot. Instead, CBS settled for former Miss America and "The NFL Today" co-host Phyllis George, who was given a three-year contract following a mere two-week trial run. Disputes between Kurtis and CBS over his role with George "over matters of journalistic style and substance" led to him leaving the job for WBBM-TV in June.
The lowest point of her very brief tenure came on May 14, 1985, during George's interview with false rape accuser Cathleen Mae Webb and the man whom she had falsely accused, Gary Dotson. In an effort to get the two to make amends to each other, George made a simple suggestion: "How about a hug?" Both Webb and Dotson graciously refused. That infamous interview alienated audiences and was blasted by critics, helping to put an unpleasant close to George's television career at this initial mark. Once again, Bob Schieffer served as a brief replacement. Phyllis George eventually left CBS for good that fall.
Maria Shriver, who had joined CBS as a West Coast feature reporter in 1983, and Forrest Sawyer, new to the network, were named co-anchors of "The CBS Morning News" on August 30, 1985. After a respectable year albeit still placing third in the ratings, Shriver and Sawyer made their last appearance on the program on August 1, 1986, after CBS News president Van Gordon Sauter announced that the early morning time slot would be handed to a newly created unit in the CBS Broadcast Group. Prodded by network affiliates who wanted something lighter than the news-oriented formats it had previously offered, CBS decided that an entertainment format might work better against "Good Morning America" and "Today", and planning began for a new show that would come to be called "The Morning Program". Bruce Morton and Faith Daniels became the first in a string of substitutes to host "Morning News" until it left the air. With the loss of what had been its biggest block of air time in one form or another for two decades, dozens of employees were laid off, a factor that cost Sauter his job.
In an August 1986 "Newsweek" article, columnist Jonathan Alter wrote regarding the move, ""The CBS Morning News" was simply shot dead. Underappreciated co-anchors Forrest Sawyer and Maria Shriver left the air with a classy farewell after the network's announcement that the perennially lagging show would be canceled by the end of the year."
Tom Shales reported in "The Washington Post", "throughout the industry there is shock and derision for the way CBS has handled [the] "Morning News," so long its problem child. Competitors are saying the "Morning News" fiasco is a symptom of a new disarray in CBS News, and some question whether current CBS News executives will all be able to ride out the storm."
"The Morning Program" (1987).
On January 12, 1987, The Morning Program made its debut hosted by actress Mariette Hartley and Rolland Smith, former longtime anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City. Radio personality Mark McEwen handled the weather, while comedian Bob Saget did comedy