CBS’ perennially low-rated Early Show has replaced its entire anchor lineup with a new team, reports USA TODAY’s Gary Levin.
Harry Smith, 59, and Maggie Rodriguez, 40, along with weatherman Dave Price, will leave the program as of Jan. 3, though CBS says it expects all will remain with the network.
The revamped broadcast will team Erica Hill and Chris Wragge, who now helm the Saturday edition of the Early Show. (Wragge also is a co-anchor at WCBS, the network’s flagship station in New York.) Jeff Glor, who anchors Saturday’s CBS Evening News, will become the show’s news anchor, and Marysol Castro, formerly of Good Morning America’s weekend edition, will provide weather reports.
Smith, at the Early Show since 2002, will now become the primary substitute anchor for the evening news, Face the Nation and Sunday Morning while continuing as a reporter, while the network says it is in talks for “prominent and ongoing roles” for Rodriguez and Price.
For the week of Nov. 15, Early Show averaged 2.9 million viewers, little more than half the total for top-ranked Today. Julie Chen left the program earlier to work full time in Los Angeles on new daytime series The Talk and, in summer months, Big Brother.
(Source: USAToday.com)
I might not watch the Early Show that much anymore since Maggie Rodriguez is going to be gone. I hate to say it, but she is a sexy and smart woman who knows what she is doing. She do have a nice pair of legs, and in the right high heels even sexyer. I have no problems with Harry Smith, his not someone that is boring or I would say I don’t like how does this or that. Don’t know about other viewers. Harry gets along well people that he works with. Dave Price is good too he sometime add a little humor, but not much and that is good. I never had any problem with them at all. I hope Maggie Rodriguez will keep on doing network news and other stuff and not go to local news, same thing with Harry Smith and Dave Price. What happen to Tracy Smith she was good. Now the Early Show got NO female reporters, who are consider sexy, but are not are not plain janes or ugly. Good luck CBS in trying to bing the old team back, when the new team don’t work at all.
I know the network don’t care how the viewrs feel or what they got to say. As long as they do what they think is right, and they never look around the web for people’s views before really going about it. But lesser Early Show for me, since it not them anymore. But I will still keep watching my 5-7 favorite primetime shows and that is it.