CBS to Pull Plug on ‘Morning Program,’ Return It to News

CBS has given up on “The Morning Program” and will let the news division take the time period back beginning in December, the network announced today.

Co-hosts Rolland Smith and Mariette Hartley and producer Bob Shanks will not be involved in the new broadcast, a network spokeswoman said.

“The Morning Program” premiered last Jan. 12, replacing the “CBS Morning News” and relieving the network’s news division of the time period from 7:30 to 9 a.m.

For years, the news division had struggled in vain to make ratings inroads against NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Today” is a news division show. “Good Morning” is an entertainment division production.

“The Morning Program” was under neither division at CBS. It used live audiences and stand-up comics to try to break away from the entrenched formats of the competition, but “The Morning Program” had even lower ratings than its predecessor.

Today, CBS released a wire to affiliates from Network President Thomas Leahy saying it was “by now abundantly clear that viewing habits in the 7-9 a.m. time period are too well established for such an alternative format to succeed.”

Hartley will return to California in December to star in a made-for-television movie for CBS, Leahy said.

Rumors abound that ABC’s Kathleen Sullivan has been approached by CBS to co-anchor a new morning news show. But she has also been filling in for Joan Lunden on “Good Morning America.”

Two “CBS Morning News” former co-anchors are out of the running. Forrest Sawyer left the network last week without saying what his plans were. Maria Shriver is now co-anchor on NBC’s new “Sunday Today.”