Shelley Ross, was replaced by Evening News EP Rick Kaplan after much speculation about her departure from the show.

TVNewser looked at a 14-week period where Ross helmed The Early Show and compared it to the previous year. From October 9, 2006 - January 12, 2007, the Total Viewer average was 2.786 million viewers. During that same period the following year (October 8, 2007 - January 11, 2008), the Total Viewer average was 2.850 million viewers. A slight year-to-year increase of 64,000 viewers.

This year's low numbers put the network morning show behind cable's leading morning show, FNC's Fox & Friends, in several major markets, like Atlanta, Detroit and Phoenix.

• Related: The Daily Intelligencer defends Shelley Ross (in much the same way Tina Fey endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton on SNL)...