This weekend’s CBS Sunday Morning will be a tribute episode to Charles Osgood. It will be Osgood’s final morning as host of the 90-minute news and feature program.
Osgood leaves the show, pardon the pun, on a high note.
Not only did the show just finish the 2015-2016 broadcast year as the #1 Sunday morning news program in viewers and the A25-54 demo, it also had its best-audience delivery in at least 28 years. Sunday Morning averaged 5.92 million viewers up +1 percent from last season, which was up from the season before that, which had improved on the season before that.
Osgood even topped the average of the three weekday morning shows for the season.
Osgood, 83, announced his retirement last month. At the time, CBS said it will honor Osgood’s 45-year career at the network — including 22 years as host of Sunday Morning — with “surprise guests, interviews, comments from well-wishers and special performances.”
Osgood will continue as the anchor of The Osgood File, his daily CBS Radio commentaries.
On CBS This Morning, Anthony Mason previewed one of the stories, about Osgood’s love of music. He owns three Steinway pianos.
Here’s the CBS release on Osgood’s final show:
CBS News will honor the career of Charles Osgood with a special “Celebrating Charlie” edition of CBS SUNDAY MORNING to be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 25 (9:00 AM ET) on the CBS Television Network.
Osgood will be the focus of the special 90-minute broadcast, which will look at his life and career as he prepares to step away from top-rated CBS SUNDAY MORNING after 22 years as anchor and nearly 50 years as a member of the CBS family. After the final broadcast, Osgood’s bow tie will be donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where it will become part of its permanent collection.
Sunday’s broadcast will feature stories exploring Osgood’s early years, as well as his career highlights on television and on the radio. Martha Teichner will look at Osgood’s love of poetry; Anthony Mason will report on Osgood’s career in music; Tracy Smith looks back at his childhood; Mo Rocca gets the story behind his bow tie collection; Serena Altschul recalls some of Osgood’s favorite TV reports; Lee Cowan travels to France to visit with the Osgood family at their seaside retreat; and Rita Braver dives into his news and radio career. The broadcast will also feature well-wishes from fellow journalists, celebrities and more.
Osgood will continue as the anchor of “The Osgood File,” his daily news commentaries broadcast on the CBS Radio Network and stations around the country. He will also make occasional appearances on CBS SUNDAY MORNING.
Osgood has been anchor of CBS SUNDAY MORNING since 1994 and with CBS News since 1971. With Osgood as anchor, last year CBS SUNDAY MORNING reached its highest audience levels in nearly three decades, and the broadcast has earned the Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Morning Program three times.
An experienced journalist and a gifted writer, Osgood has earned many top broadcasting awards, including the Walter Cronkite Excellence in Journalism Award from Arizona State University, the George Foster Peabody Award and the National Association of Broadcasters Distinguished Service Award. He joined CBS News in 1971 and has been an anchor and reporter for every broadcast on the network, including the “CBS Morning News,” the “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather” and the “CBS Sunday Night News.”Before joining CBS News, Osgood was an anchor and reporter for WCBS News Radio 880 in New York. Before CBS he worked for ABC News; he also served as the general manager of WHCT-TV in Hartford, CT, and was the program director and classical music announcer for WGMS Radio in Washington, D.C.