The ‘Soberly Focused’ CBS ‘Early Show’

The New York Times‘ Alessandra Stanley has been keeping an eye on CBS’s “Early Show,” and she likes what she sees … we think:

There isn’t much news you can use on “The Early Show” on CBS. It no longer offers dieting tips, barbecue recipes or audience makeovers. There are no pop concerts or “Growing Pains” cast reunions. “The Early Show” doesn’t plan weddings or even forecast rain — weather is delegated to local affiliates.

CBS’s morning show is at times so soberly focused on hard news that it looks almost like PBS or C-Span. Or worse: its stolid co-anchors, Chris Wragge and Erica Hill, stare into the camera with a bleak blue backdrop behind them that gives the show the look of a Soviet newscast in the Brezhnev era.

Stanely writes that the new, and still transformational format hasn’t moved the needle much. “Early” is still a distant third in the ratings behind the wedding planning “Today” show and the cast reunion-ific “Good Morning America.” If you’d like to follow ratings of the three morning shows, click here.

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