TVNewser has learned former CBS News “Early Show” senior producer-turned author Batt Humphreys is returning to CBS as interim EP of “The Early Show.”
Humphreys spent 15 years as a morning senior producer at CBS, departing in 2007 to return South and devote his time writing. He returned as a guest in 2009 (video after the jump) to promote his true crime novel “Dead Weight.”
The announcement comes after Monday’s news, that current EP of the program, David Friedman would be leaving the broadcast. CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and president David Rhodes are taking the show in a new direction, acknowledging in a note to the staff that it will not be “the kind of show that David Friedman was hired to run.”
Today’s news comes a day after “Evening News” EP Rick Kaplan announced he was leaving the show and the network. Tomorrow will be Kaplan’s last day at CBS after four years atop “Evening News.”
> Update: It’s official. Rhodes says Humphreys will join next Monday, May 16, working with Tom Mazzarelli, the show’s Senior Broadcast Producer.