It’s a big day for The Early Show: its re-launch is set for 7 amET. In addition to the program’s new set, graphics, and music, Maggie Rodriguez officially starts as co-anchor, a job previously held by Hannah Storm.
Also of key importance: numerous CBS affiliates have agreed to buck tradition and run The Early Show without extensive local news content taking up much of the first hour of the broadcast. A long-standing agreement, Broadcasting & Cable‘s Marisa Guthrie writes, had “essentially shoe-horned The Early Show into one hour at 8 a.m. in about 23% of the country.”
In essence, reports AP’s David Bauder, “CBS News is asking dozens of its affiliates to take a leap of faith in the morning.”
It’s a leap The Early Show Executive Producer Shelley Ross says will be worth it. “We are about the news first and the content first,” she tells Bauder. “We’re going to really demonstrate that we’re not your grandmother’s morning show.”