This week, CBS’ Chris Wragge is starting his day at 3:45am as he fills in for Harry Smith on “The Early Show.” Wragge ends his day after anchoring the 11 O’Clock news for WCBS-TV in New York, and smack in the middle he anchors the hour-long 5pm news.
TVNewser caught up with him during a few spare minutes to see how he’s holding up. “I’ve done this a couple of times for just a few days,” he said. “But this time it’s a little bit much.”
For the rest of this week, Wragge will be doing all three programs along with various other duties he’s been assigned: “This week is a little bit different. I have to shoot a promo for The Barclays for CBS on the golf course tomorrow. So I’ll probably sleep in the car. Wednesday, I have a CBS News shoot that’s September 11th related. (Sighs) We’ll get through it.”
We asked him how he does it. Diet and exercise appear to be key: “Gotta have a good diet. I start building up the week before like a runner training for a marathon or Lance Armstrong for the Tour De France.”
“I gotta tell you, this is a tremendous opportunity and I’m extremely flattered,” he adds. Wragge is very aware of the fortune he has. “It takes me two-three weeks to recover, but no one else in the country has that kind of opportunity. Especially when you consider what’s happening to a lot of people in this industry.”
After the jump, you can actually see a breakdown of Wragge’s entire day and it’s enough to make us want to pass out just reading it.
3:45AM | Alarm goes off | |
4:30AM | Car arrives | |
4:45AM | Arrive at studio, begin prep | |
7:00AM | Host “The Early Show” | |
9:30AM | Post-wrap meeting | |
10:15AM | Out of studio | |
10:30AM | Home | |
10:45AM-12:30PM | Nap | |
1:45PM | Back in office; lunch at desk | |
2:00PM | Meeting | |
2:45PM | In studio shoots and prep | |
5:00PM | WCBS News | |
6:00PM | Break for dinner or nap | |
7:00PM | Prep for tomorrow | |
9:30PM | Prep for evening news | |
11:00PM | Evening News | |
12:00AM | Home | |
12:30AM | Asleep Repeat. |