CBS This Morning: The ‘Moneyball’ of Morning Shows

While the new “CBS This Morning” undergoes rehearsals this week for Monday’s launch, the final days of “The Early Show” are on the road. Earlier this week in Iowa and the remainder in New Hampshire. Back in New York, TVGuide’s Stephen Battaglio caught up with show EP Chris Licht who is using the film “Moneyball,” in which renegade baseball executive Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, changes how the game is played. The analogy is complete with an Oakland A’s cap sitting amidst the CBS News paraphernalia on the set.

CBS This Morning executive producer Chris Licht screened the film at a private launch party for the cast and crew held at the Ed Sullivan Theater last month. The message to the troops: out with the old rules and traditions of morning television. No forced banter, comedic weather forecasters and cheering fans on an outdoor plaza. “We’re the Moneyball of TV,” Licht says. “We’re going to try to do it in a different way and everyone will scoff at it.”

Battaglio writes that bringing on Charlie Rose — who turns 70 today — as host shows the new program “will embrace the news division’s emphasis on serious journalism and original reporting. That makes sense since breeziness has never been a strength of CBS News.”

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