There's a major overhaul going on at CBS's "The Early Show:" Co-anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez are out, as is weather anchor Dave Price.

The trio, who have worked together on the show since 2008, will be replaced by co-anchors Erica Hill and Chris Wragge and weather anchor Marysol Castro. Hill moves into the new post from her role as news anchor; Jeff Glor will fill her old spot.

Smith will focus on hard news in a role CBS calls "primary substitute anchor," filling in on "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric," "Face the Nation," and "CBS Sunday Morning."

Future positions for Price and Rodriguez have yet to be announced, though the net says it is "discussing prominent and ongoing roles" for both of them.


http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118028177

CBS is making sweeping changes to its third place morning program The Early Show.

The network is moving weekend Early Show anchors Chris Wragge and Erica Hill to weekday duty and adding Jeff Glor as the newsreader. Marysol Castro, the former weather and feature correspondent for the weekend edition of Good Morning America, will also join the program. The new team starts January 3.

Wragge has been co-anchor of the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. news for the CBS-owned station in New York since 2006. Hill handled news anchoring duties on CNN before joining CBS in 2008. Glor has been an anchor for the CBS Evening News on Saturday and a correspondent.

Current Early Show co-anchors Harry Smith, on his second go-around with the program, will remain with CBS as the primary substitute for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, Face the Nation and CBS Sunday Morning. Maggie Rodriguez and Dave Price are discussing new assignments at the network. All three were just told of the moves today. Julie Chen has already found a new home on the network as moderator of the new CBS daytime chat fest The Talk. Chen will remain as a contributor to The Early Show.

The Early Show has long been the third-rated program behind NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America, but has remained profitable, although less so in recent years as the advertising market has suffered.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Big-Changes-Early-Show-1026207.aspx?rss=breakingnews&partnerid=popeater&profileid=breaking

Geez, they've been trying to make this thing work for the past 25 years now.

To be so strong everywhere else, CBS's news division leaves a lot to be desired. Evening News, Early Show, Face the Nation....blah.

CBS Bosses has recently made a overhaul at at The Early Show and Maggie, Harry and Dave will all be out of the job starting January 1, 2011 12:00AM

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/30/entertainment/main7103214.shtml
CBS News Announces New "Early Show" Team
Chris Wragge and Erica Hill Named New Co-Anchors; Jeff Glor to Take Over as


Erica Hill and Chris Wragge (CBS)
(CBS) Big changes are coming to "The Early Show" next year.

Starting Jan. 3, Erica Hill and Chris Wragge will be the new co-anchors of CBS News' morning program. Jeff Glor will serve as the broadcast’s news anchor.

Marysol Castro, formerly of ABC's "Good Morning America" weekend edition, will join the team as the weather anchor.
The appointments were announced Tuesday by Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, and David Friedman, "Early Show" executive producer.

"'The Early Show' is an important element of CBS News," McManus said in a statement. "We constantly focus on how to improve the broadcast, and we think we have a terrific combination in Erica, Chris, Jeff and Marysol. In the year since David has taken the helm, he has produced some outstanding programming and shown a deep, thoughtful understanding of morning television. This new team brings vibrancy, intelligence and warmth that I think America will grow to love."

"Erica, Chris, Jeff and Marysol are four accomplished broadcasters who already have proven track records and loyal followings. Together, they're going to be even stronger," Friedman added. "This group is the perfect combination of intelligence and personality for morning television, and I’m excited to give viewers the opportunity to welcome them into their homes each morning."

Hill and Wragge have co-anchored the Saturday edition of "The Early Show" since 2008. Hill also has been news anchor for "The Early Show" since January of this year.

Glor has anchored the Saturday edition of the "CBS Evening News" and been a national correspondent reporting for all CBS News broadcasts since 2009. He has also been a substitute anchor for the "CBS Evening News" since March 2007.

The current cast of "The Early Show" - Harry Smith, Maggie Rodriguez and Dave Price - will remain at the network in new roles, according to the statement.

Smith will become the primary substitute anchor on the "CBS Evening News," "Face the Nation" and "Sunday Morning," while continuing to report major stories for all CBS News broadcasts.

The network is discussing ongoing roles for Rodriguez and Price.

"We appreciate Harry, Maggie and Dave's countless contributions to 'The Early Show' and are looking forward to the contributions they each will continue to make at CBS News," McManus said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113006125.html
"Early Show" anchors out as CBS shuffles its morning lineup


Co-anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez will leave "The Early Show" but still work for CBS, the network said. (Cbs)


Discussion Policy
By Lisa de Moraes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 30, 2010; 8:15 PM
With CBS CEO wife Julie Chen safely ensconced in CBS's new daytime gabfest "The Talk," CBS News got the all-clear to announce, just in time for the holiday season, that it was giving other members of "The Early Show" on-air team the old heave ho-ho-ho.

Gone, as of Jan. 3, will be anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez and weatherman Dave Price. The network wants you to know, however, that they will continue to be employed on air by CBS News - just elsewhere.

The only surviving member of the show's team, news reader Erica Hill, will take over as a co-anchor, to be joined by Chris Wragge, effective Jan. 3. In one of those incredible coincidences that make covering TV so paranormal, Hill and Wragge have been co-anchoring the Saturday edition of "The Early Show" since 2008.

Also joining the show: news reader Jeff Glor and weatherperson Marysol Castro.

Glor has anchored the Saturday edition of the "CBS Evening News" since last year. And Castro was weather and feature correspondent for ABC News's weekend edition of "Good Morning America" from 2004 to this year.

Meanwhile, whither goest Smith - the sole survivor (until now) of the team that CBS News seated on the show in 2002, a team that also included "Chenbot," Hannah Storm and Rene Syler?

Smith "will shift his focus to hard news with an expanded role as primary substitute anchor on 'The Evening News with Katie Couric,' 'Face the Nation' and 'Sunday Morning' while continuing to report major stories for all CBS News broadcasts," CBS News said in Tuesday morning's anouncement.

Meanwhile, the news division said it is discussing "prominent and ongoing roles" for Rodriguez and Price.

"We appreciate Harry, Maggie and Dave's countless contributions to 'The Early Show' and are looking forward to the contributions they each will continue to make at CBS News," Sean McManus, president of CBS News and CBS Sports, said in a statement.

When Chen became den mother of "The Talk," which premiered in October, she said she would mostly work as a "consultant" for "The Early Show," doing taped pieces.

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/11/maggie_rodriguez_fired_from_cb.php
It's not a good year for veterans of Miami local news who've gone national. There was of course Rick Sanchez's total breakdown, and Katie Couric's continued ratings troubles at the CBS Evening News. Now it seems that Miami-native and CBS 4 alum Maggie Rodriguez has been fired from her gig as a co-host of CBS's Early Show.

The Early Show is the constant third place finisher in the annoyingly perky morning show wars with The Today Show and Good Morning America. In a bid to increase ratings the unstable morning show is once again shaking up its anchor lineup.

Rodriguez has been relieved of duty along with co-anchor Harry Smith and forecaster Dave Price. Chris Wragge and Erica Hill, formerly of the station's Saturday morning show, will take over. Creepy news robot Julie Chen remains as an anchor, probably because she's married to CBS president Les Monves. Funny how that works.

Rodriguez replaced Hannah Storm as one of the show's hosts in December 2007. Before that she anchored newscasts since 2000 for CBS affiliate WFOR here in Miami and helped the station win an Edward R. Murrow award for its coverage of the transfer of power between Fidel and Raul Castro in Cuba. Rodriguez is a native of Miami and earned her masters degree in broadcasting from the University of Miami.

The AP reports that Rodriguez will continue to work for CBS, but her future role is unclear.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5im7y79zaGUdGFLPVN8yIbZVx1w6w?docId=99411ef2006440b0877392ad1c83cac8
CBS News overhauls its morning show
(AP) – 7 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News is completely overhauling "The Early Show" broadcast team.
Co-anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez are out, along with weather forecaster Dave Price. The news of the shuffle came Tuesday from a person with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak on personnel issues.
The morning news show's new anchor team will be Chris Wragge and Erica Hill, who have worked together anchoring CBS' Saturday-morning show. Hill is also the current news reader for the weekday version.
Jeff Glor, anchor of Saturday's "CBS Evening News" and a reporter on "The Early Show, will take over the news reader job on the morning show. Marysol Castro, formerly of ABC's "Good Morning America" weekend edition, will do the weather.
"The Early Show" runs third in the network morning show competition behind NBC's "Today" show and ABC's "Good Morning America."
CBS is owned by CBS Corp.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2010-11-30-cbs-news-morning-early-show-harry-smith_N.htm
CBS News overhauls its morning show
Updated 35m ago | Comment | Recommend E-mail | Save | Print | Reprints & Permissions |

Enlarge By Richard Drew, AP

CBS News is completely overhauling The Early Show broadcast team. Co-anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez are out, along with weather forecaster Dave Price.

Enlarge By John Paul Filo, CBS

The new CBS Early Show team: News anchor Jeff Glor, anchors Erica Hil and Chris Wragge and weather forecaster Marysol Castro. The new lineup premieres on Monday, Jan. 3.
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
CBS's perennially low-rated Early Show has replaced its entire anchor lineup with a new team.
Harry Smith, 59, and Maggie Rodriguez, 40, along with weatherman Dave Price, will leave the program as of Jan. 3, though CBS says it expects all will remain with the network.

The revamped broadcast will team Erica Hill and Chris Wragge, who now helm the Saturday edition of the Early Show. (Wragge also is a co-anchor at WCBS, the network's flagship station in New York). Jeff Glor, who anchors Saturday's CBS Evening News, will become the show's news anchor, and Marysol Castro, formerly of Good Morning America's weekend edition, will provide weather reports.

Smith, at the Early Show since 2002, will now become the primary substitute anchor for the evening news, Face the Nation and Sunday Morning, while continuing as a reporter, while the network says it is in talks for "prominent and ongoing roles" for Rodriguez and Price.

For the week of Nov. 15, Early Show averaged 2.9 million viewers, little more than half the total for top-ranked Today. Julie Chen left the program earlier to work fulltime in Los Angeles on new daytime series The Talk and, in summer months, Big Brother.

"The content of the show has been first-rate the last six months, but ratings have not grown the way we'd like to have seen them grown," says Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports. "We felt at this point it was time to do something dramatic, and we felt this combination does allow us to be competitive in January. We're not looking for any fireworks; we're not going to suddenly be No. 2," he says. But McManus hopes for "slow and steady" progress and says most of the new team is already familiar to Early Show viewers.

If previous changes have not garnered the ratings boost CBS executives have been seeking, why do they think that this change will be any different?

Why don't they just take this show off and replace it with reruns of 'Captain Kangaroo'???

a) Educational/children's programming on weekday mornings, via a major TV network, is no longer feasible (or profitable).
b) The network no longer has the rights to "CAPTAIN KANGAROO". If they wanted to schedule repeats{which is most unlikely}, they'd have to do business with Haim Saban, who currently owns the rights to it....which is definitely unlikely.
c) Local affiliates, short of providing their own "morning show"- either locally or syndicated- would prefer to take "THE EARLY SHOW" and make as much money with it as possible, and the five minute "windows" at the end of each half-hour that enable them to generate more revenue.

Harry Smith has already acted as the main host of the series during the mid-'90s. Now CBS feels he's getting "old and tired" once again, and prefers someone like Chris Wragge to "front" it. I've seen Chris in action on WCBS-TV's local newscasts in New York, and he has a good chance of attracting viewers on the network. Harry is going to stick around at CBS because he's proven himself the best substitute anchor on the "EVENING NEWS", "SUNDAY MORNING", and "FACE THE NATION". However, my opinion is that Maggie Rodriguez and Dave Price will soon exit the network for "other opportunities"...

:tv:

The Early Show better get ready to watch their Ratings sink even lower. It's not the Anchors fault. It's the Executive Producer they need to get rid of. I can see Good Morning America and Today getting out the Champaign right now and laughing at The Early Show because they can never keep a Consistent Team. watch your Ratings Plunge Early, yo are gonna loose MANY MANY VIEWERS to The Today show and Good Morning America.

a) Educational/children's programming on weekday mornings, via a major TV network, is no longer feasible (or profitable).
b) The network no longer has the rights to "CAPTAIN KANGAROO". If they wanted to schedule repeats{which is most unlikely}, they'd have to do business with Haim Saban, who currently owns the rights to it....which is definitely unlikely.
c) Local affiliates, short of providing their own "morning show"- either locally or syndicated- would prefer to take "THE EARLY SHOW" and make as much money with it as possible, and the five minute "windows" at the end of each half-hour that enable them to generate more revenue.

Harry Smith has already acted as the main host of the series during the mid-'90s. Now CBS feels he's getting "old and tired" once again, and prefers someone like Chris Wragge to "front" it. I've seen Chris in action on WCBS-TV's local newscasts in New York, and he has a good chance of attracting viewers on the network. Harry is going to stick around at CBS because he's proven himself the best substitute anchor on the "EVENING NEWS", "SUNDAY MORNING", and "FACE THE NATION". However, my opinion is that Maggie Rodriguez and Dave Price will soon exit the network for "other opportunities"...

:tv:

Uh, regarding the 'Captain Kangaroo' remark, I was only kidding...

Well, one of the morning shows has to be in last place, they can't all be #1. I personally like 'The Early Show' the best out of the three (I find the other two shows highly overrated).

And it looks like they've already begun the change-or maybe it's a test run-because I have watched The Early Show a few times this week(in order to see different articles of interest to me),and they had a whole new crew this week.Neither Harry Smith,Maggie Rodriguez or Dave Price were there.

Dave Price was the last remaining original member of "Good Day, New York", a local morning show here in New York that had a great long run due to a remarkably likable cast. Jim Ryan used to LOVE making fun of Dave Price and Dave Price used to LOVE when Jim Ryan made fun of him.
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