CBS News overhauls its morning show

[December 01, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- CBS News is completely overhauling "The Early Show" to give the broadcast team a fresh look.

Co-anchors Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez are out, along with weather forecaster Dave Price, the network said on Tuesday.

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, CBS said. 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. The week before last, NBC's "Today" show averaged 5.6 million viewers each day, "GMA" had 4.6 million and "The Early Show" had 2.9 million, the Nielsen Co. said.

The new team will start on Jan. 3. It marks the second big change to a morning team in a year, after ABC installed George Stephanopoulos as a co-anchor with Robin Roberts and added news reader JuJu Chang.

Smith had the longest tenure on "The Early Show." He was the sole survivor from 2002 when CBS installed a four-anchor team that included Smith, Hannah Storm, Julie Chen and Rene Syler. He also hosted a previous CBS morning show from 1987 to 1996. He'll stay at CBS as a news reporter and primary substitute on Katie Couric's evening news show and on "Face the Nation."

Wragge worked in sports, including a stint as a sideline reporter at events for NBC, until he made the jump to news in 2006. Beside his weekend job at CBS, he had been anchoring local news broadcasts at the network's New York affiliate, a job he'll give up to go national.

Hill, who came to CBS from CNN, briefly filled in for Rodriguez last year when Rodriguez was on maternity leave.

Price had strayed beyond the weather for other stories at "The Early Show." Most recently, the show left him in Alaska with $50 and challenged him to earn money for a return trip to New York, filming his adventures along the way.

CBS said Rodriguez and Price will continue with the network, but their future roles are unclear.

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CBS is owned by CBS Corp.

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Online:

http://www.cbs.com/

[Associated Press; By DAVID BAUDER]

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