Charlie Rose, Gayle King to Headline New CBS Morning News

By Chris Ariens 

After much talk, first in Page Six, CBS News is bringing on Charlie Rose and Gayle King to front a revamped and, likely, renamed CBS morning news show.

An announcement is expected Tuesday, sources tell TVNewser.

The current anchors Erica Hill and Jeff Glor, who were named co-anchor and news anchor less than a year ago, will play a role in the new morning program.

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Chris Wragge will rejoin WCBS — he’d already been named 6pm co-anchor — and work on other projects. The new show will continue to leave weather reports to CBS affiliates.

Rose is best known for his late night, “Charlie Rose” interview show on PBS and Bloomberg. But he’s worked on and off for CBS News over the years, including as a correspondent on “60 Minutes II.” King, has worked in local newsrooms in Baltimore, Kansas City and Hartford, but may be best known as Oprah Winfrey’s friend and confidant. The two met while working at CBS-owned WJZ-TV in Baltimore. King hosts “The Gayle King Show,” on Sirius radio for two hours every morning. The second hour is simulcast on OWN TV. King is also an editor-at-large on O, The Oprah Magazine.

CBS News reassembled the inner workings of the show last Friday slashing some positions while adding others.

The show is expected to debut in the New Year with a new set in the CBS Broadcast Center. Viewers may notice a resemblance to “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, the politically-focused morning show hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. CBS had tried to pry away Scarborough and Brzezinski from their MSNBC deals for the new CBS program, but NBC wouldn’t allow it. Chris Licht, who was the founding producer of the MSNBC show, joined CBS News this summer as VP of Programming.

“The Early Show” debuted 12 years ago this month and was aligned in name with CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman.” Like its NBC and ABC competitors, “Early” has programmed a combination of news, entertainment, health & lifestyle stories.

A new name hasn’t been determined. “CBS Morning News” was the name of the program in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. In 1987 the show was renamed “CBS This Morning” and in 1999 became “The Early Show.”

> More: NYT’s Brian Stelter has more details:

The plan calls for Mr. Rose, who has contributed in the past to the network’s most popular program, “60 Minutes,” to help lead the 7 a.m. hour with Ms. Hill, who joined CBS from CNN in early 2010.

Ms. King will help lead the 8 a.m. hour, typically the softer hour for morning news shows. CBS plans to feature its correspondents, like John Miller, a law enforcement veteran who was recently hired by the network, and hire other contributors, in much the same way that MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” has a set of recognizable members of its roundtable.

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