SULLIVAN TO CO-HOST NEW CBS A.M. NEWS SHOW

Kathleen Sullivan, former co-anchor of ABC’s “World News This Morning” and temporary co-host this week of “Good Morning America,” soon will work for CBS News in the mornings, CBS said Wednesday.

With ABC since July, 1982, Sullivan now will co-host a new two-hour CBS News morning program scheduled to premiere Nov. 30. The show is the latest effort by CBS to escape from the 7-9 a.m. weekday cellar.

CBS News President Howard Stringer, in a prepared statement, described Sullivan as “a proven morning talent with intelligence, sparkle and kinetic energy.”

Her signing had been expected. Although CBS gave no details of her new contract, it reportedly runs three years and will earn her upwards of $800,000 annually.

No decision has been made on her male partner for the as-yet untitled morning broadcast that will succeed the third-rated “The Morning Program.”

That 90-minute effort, co-hosted by Mariette Hartley and Rolland Smith, premiered nine months ago. It has continuously trailed NBC’s front-running “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” in the ratings.

Faith Daniels, now on leave from “The CBS Morning News” because of a death in the family, is expected to continue as co-anchor of the network’s 6-7 a.m. newscast that will precede the new two-hour program, a network source said.

Daniels had been co-anchoring the current 6-7:30 a.m. version of the “CBS Morning News” with Forrest Sawyer. However, Sawyer quit the network last Thursday to consider other TV offers. Veteran newscaster Douglas Edwards and Bob Faw have been filling in this week.

Sullivan, a Pasadena native, studied business administration and speech communication at USC, began her television career in 1977 as an intern at CBS-owned KNXT-TV (now KCBS-TV) in Los Angeles.

She later worked as a reporter and anchor for KTVX-TV in Salt Lake City, then worked as an anchor of Cable News Network from 1980 until she joined ABC two years later.

In addition to her news anchor assignments, she also co-anchored ABC Sports’ coverage of the 1984 Winter and Summer Olympics.