Charlie Rose, Gayle King Joining 'The Early Show'

In an audacious effort to boost its ratings, CBS' "The Early Show" has hired some talk show heavyweights.

On Thursday, sources told The New York Times that Charlie Rose and Gayle King would be joining the embattled program in January.

Rose, who hosts the show "Charlie Rose" on PBS, will co-anchor the 7 a.m. hour with Erica Hill. He will also continue to work on his popular late night interview program and contribute to the "60 Minutes" news show.

King, editor-at-large of "O, The Oprah Magazine" and best friend to the talk show maven, will co-anchor the 8 a.m. hour with Jeff Glor. King has previously worked as a television news anchor and currently hosts "The Gayle King Show," on OWN.

According to The Daily Beast, the pair was courted by CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager.

Chris Wragge, who currently co-hosts both "Early" and the 6 p.m. news on WCBS, the CBS station in New York, will be leaving the show. In a statement released Thursday, he said, "CBS has been my home since 2004 and will be for the foreseeable future in whatever capacity they want. I am loyal and grateful to CBS."

This will be CBS News' second revamp of the third-place morning show in as many years, and is the most conspicuous effort yet by the network to zig where its competitors have zagged. Having already doubled down on a harder news format, the network is now making a big bet that its counter-programming strategy can bring viewers who have tired of the fluffier morning shows on NBC and ABC. What remains to be seen, of course, is whether Rose and King can bring those viewers along with their star power — and whether they will be comfortable in a format neither of them has been tested in.

CBS is still putting the finishing touches on the official announcement, which is scheduled to occur next Tuesday, and completing the construction of a multimillion dollar studio for the show.

A (mostly) complete timeline of CBS' morning shows, 1963-present:

• 1963: 'CBS Morning News'

  Mike Wallace was the first to try his hand at morning news, after an eight-year CBS drought in the genre. It didn't last. (Note: above image is from Wallace's interview program, so it is rather more austere.)

• 1964-1970: Joseph Benti Era

  Benti took over from Wallace and lasted for six years. He was replaced by John Hart, who later went on to the "Today" show.

• 1973-1974: The Sally Quinn Era

  We'll let our <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/02/a-look-back-at-the-cbs-mo_n_947274.html" target="_hplink">previous coverage</a> of this unforgettable moment in TV history speak for itself.

• 1979-1980: Bob Schieffer

  The show was renamed 'Morning,' and Schieffer took the helm. He has since called the experience one of the worst of his professional life.

• 1980-1982: Charles Kuralt

  Kuralt hosted the weekday show as well as 'CBS Sunday Morning,' before deciding to stick just to the weekends.

• 1985-1986: Maria Shriver

  Shriver hosted along with Forrest Sawyer, up until the show was canceled.

• 1987: 'The Morning Program'

  A new show was brought in, with actress Mariette Hartley and anchor Rolland Smith. It lasted less than a year.

• 1987-1999: 'This Morning'

  Harry Smith was a mainstay on this show. It also featured future CNN anchor Paula Zahn for a time. (Both left in 1996.)

• 1999-2002: Bryant Gumbel Moves In

  'The Early Show' debuted with a splash, as Gumbel returned to his morning perch. He lasted three years.

• 2002-2010: Harry Smith/Chen/Rodriguez/Price/Storm/Syler/Mitchell Era

• 2010-Present: Erica Hill/Chris Wragge Era

  In 2010, the entire anchor team was let go, replaced by weekend anchors Hill and Wragge.

• A series of retro intros to the various morning shows CBS has put on the air.

Comments

[LeBlue]

01:55 AM on 11/22/2011

CBS is hoping the Oprah groupies will settle for Gayle. Charlie can never fill Harry's shoes.

[Mary Hecht]

08:50 PM on 11/14/2011

Charlie Rose has always been so respected with all levels of the Journalism world.

[RickCoMatic]

06:30 PM on 11/14/2011

Doomed from the get.
Unbelievable.
When these two join morning TV, ... the only audience is going to be crew working the show.
This won't make it better.
This will just make the situation worse.

[G Goo]

02:23 PM on 11/15/2011

At least, they will have Oprah watching the eight o'clock hour !!

[clumberlover]

05:52 PM on 11/14/2011

if CBS is going to add an "old guy", why on earth did they get rid of Harry Smith? Harry was the only reason i watched the show.

[CSOFSC]

02:37 PM on 11/14/2011

I'm no rocket scientist, but the folks making the decisions for the Early Show may just want to take a look at all of these posts before actually puting these two sleeping pills on air. If we can't have Harry, Dave & Maggie back, PLEASE, at least let us keep ALL of the current line-up! (Marysol would be nice too). The only possible way the Early Show could go downhill any faster in reverse is if they backed over a cliff... "Oh wait" .. they just decided to do that !
Want better ratings? I have an idea.. how about start with getting a new cast of decision makers !
FOX & Friends... here i come.

[MrsFreeze]

11:43 AM on 11/14/2011

never in a million years would i have put the words "gayle king" and "talk show heavyweights" together. admittedly, i do not watch her but my impression of her from what i have seen from time to time is the exact opposite. does she really have heavyweight credentials?

[Charles W Noble]

11:00 AM on 11/14/2011

Charlie Rose has depth and has interviewed some amazing personalities. Hopefully he'll draw on that.

[quedog]

09:59 AM on 11/14/2011

almost no one will tune in to see gail
i am calling this an ultra fast fail
who is coming up with CBS strategy

[quedog]

09:56 AM on 11/14/2011

question:
will it work
answer:
has it ever worked

no it wont work

[missmary]

09:12 AM on 11/14/2011

Could you have found a worse picture of Gail?? I doubt it.

[wheeljc]

08:44 AM on 11/14/2011

Charlie Rose will only put folks 'BACK TO SLEEP' in the mornings. He will make them LATE TO WORK!! Give the new line up less than one year!

[bellabeach]

07:35 AM on 11/14/2011

Are you talking about Gayle's actual "weight" or her journalistic abilities????

[boyyepper1]

04:19 AM on 11/14/2011

i agree with neal campbell, it want work and i want watch.

[boyyepper1]

04:17 AM on 11/14/2011

i want be watching it then, no more?

[InfinteShibumi]

01:17 AM on 11/14/2011

Sorry, Charlie.