There is a date, somewhere off in the distance, when CBS News execs figure their morning show will, at long last, climb into the No. 2 position in the daypart. What would have been unthinkable a few years ago is increasingly something they envision at the CBS Broadcast Center colossus on Manhattan's way West Side.
Extrapolating the ratings growth of CBS This Morning five years after it launched, Ryan Kadro, the show's executive producer, has a rough idea of when that game of ratings leapfrog may take place. He's asked his research wiz for some help in pinpointing the date, but the numbers guy would rather not play fortune-teller.
There's a date out there, but despite my pressing, he won't share it, says Kadro, who moved up to the morning EP spot when Chris Licht shifted to The Late Show. We think about it all the time.
To be sure, third place is, in this case, also last place. Yet the energy and optimism around 530 W. 57th St. is palpable. In early 2012, CBS News rolled the dice on hard news, betting that a morning program stripped of cooking shows, plaza concerts and other staples of a.m. television would work as effective counterprogramming. As we enter 2017 with talk of fake news dominating the media discussion, CBS This Morning's focus on More Real News- a hashtag it has employed for nearly the whole of the show's tenure-is finally paying off.
David Rhodes, CBS News president, smiles at the coincidence. We've been promoting real news at a time when the industry's obsession is fake news, he says. How much more can we do with that? A lot. A lot of people are looking for more real news.
Cronkite Meets Captain Kangaroo
The morning show has long been a bugaboo for CBS News. Walter Cronkite sat in the Morning Show chair for six months in 1954, succeeded by Jack Paar and Dick Van Dyke before Cronkite returned a year later, Van Dyke at his side. That last iteration was cut to an hour to make room for Captain Kangaroo at 8 a.m.
The slot has held a wide range of programs designed to compete with ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today, including Good Morning!, The CBS Morning News, The Morning Program (featuring comedy bits from Bob Saget) and, simply, Morning.
The Early Show had a run from 1999 to early 2012, but never truly emerged as competition. At that point, CBS News pivoted its philosophy-if it couldn't compete with the glossy bookings and snappy repartee of the competition, its thinking was, at least it could produce a show that the likes of CBS News legends Cronkite and Don Hewitt would've been proud of.
CBS This Morning, with Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Erica Hill, debuted in January 2012. In July of that year, Norah O'Donnell, then the network's chief White House correspondent, took over for Hill.
Rose likes to say he, King and O'Donnell are winning over one viewer at a time. Get a person to watch once or twice, he says, and there's a good chance they'll switch from GMA or Today. We believe the ratings follow quality and good work, Rose says. It may not be overnight.
It definitely hasn't been overnight, but the growth is indisputable. In the fourth quarter, CBS This Morning averaged 3.69 million total viewers, a gain of 6%, and 1.1 million more than when the show launched. During the same period, NBC dropped 1% to 4.58 million and ABC slid 6% to 4.66 million.
Kadro recalls a congratulatory note from Evening News anchor Scott Pelley in 2012, when the newscast hit an early milestone. You're living in the 2s, it read.
In the 25-54 demo in the fourth quarter, CBS went up 10% to 1.1 million while NBC was a flat 1.79 million and ABC fell 8% to 1.53 million.
Morning Mix
Morning TV remains lucrative. Pew Research pegged annual revenue for the three shows at $809 million in 2015, the most recent year it has numbers for.
It wasn't long ago that the CBS affiliates, pleased as they were with the net's primetime performance, were so put off by the sinkhole that the morning show had become that they fought to put local news in the slot. Affiliates board chairman Chris Cornelius, VP of business development at Morgan Murphy Media, says it's a different story now. He challenged coworkers partial to GMA and Today to switch to CBS for a month, and- as Rose predicted-about half ended up sticking with CBS This Morning. Once people sample the show, it's really hard to turn away, he says. Affiliates in general are pretty happy with the direction of the show, and we hope it continues to grow.
At a time when the news cycle can't seem to catch its breath, whether it's Donald Trump or gun violence or Putin's posturing or ISIS, Cornelius believes that positions CBS This Morning particularly well among a.m. players.
CBS' morning recipe is fairly simple. The program employs a deep reserve of correspondents, leans heavily on the chemistry of its three anchors, goes long on substantive interviews and mostly skips the fluffy bits that dominate the competition's shows, particularly after 8 a.m. Rhodes scoffs at a rival's report on ugly Christmas sweaters just before the holidays. I mean, really-that's the best people can do at 8:30? he says.
Kadro notes how he often gives extra time to segments, unsexy as they may be, related to politics, policy or overseas turmoil. He's willing to withstand a ratings dip of a few tenths of a point with such stories, but says he increasingly sees an uptick. The audience is responding to what we're doing, Kadro says. If we think it's interesting, we're going to do it.
Chemistry Lesson
Chemistry is tough to measure, and even tougher to come up with; finding the right blend of morning talent has doomed many exec producers and network news chiefs. Much was made of the pairing of Rose and King at launch-
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
08/12/2025
DENVER MediaKind, a global provider of cloud-based video streaming technology announced today that it is acquiring the video business of Harmonic Inc. for appro...
08/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsen has announced that its Audience Segments from Nielsen Marketing Cloud (NMC) are now available across the Amazon Ads marketplace, including the ...
08/12/2025
Marshall Electronics showcases the CV355-27X-ND3 Optical Zoom NDI (NDI HX2, NDI HX3) Camera at ISE 2026 (Booth 4N900). Designed for users seeking high-quality ...
08/12/2025
Cinnafilm today announced the immediate availability of IPx LIVE and Tachyon LIVE, delivering broadcast-grade, real-time IP video transcoding and motion-compens...
08/12/2025
Following a successful 45th anniversary year in 2024, Hiltron reports increasing demand for its wide range of satellite communication equipment manufacturing, p...
08/12/2025
Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh is the first celebrity to be revealed for the s...
08/12/2025
Changing children's lives for good: A staggering 4.6 million raised in the 2025 appeal
The people of Ireland and people all over the world have once again...
08/12/2025
It's murder on the dancefloor as The Traitors Ireland legend Paudie Moloney ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the First Look for Land of Sin' - Premier...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
There is a date, somewhere off in the distance, when CBS News execs figure their morning show will, at long last, climb into the No. 2 position in the daypart. What would have been unthinkable a few years ago is increasingly something they envision at the CBS Broadcast Center colossus on Manhattan's way West Side.
