A Tough Challenge in ‘Morning’ : Television: New producer is trying to rouse CBS’ early-day show out of the No. 3 spot in the ratings.

Erik Sorenson recently became the second executive producer that “CBS This Morning” has had since its debut Nov. 30 two years ago. He has what some consider the morning version of “Mission Impossible.”

Like its previous incarnations, the two-hour program remains a distant third in ratings against NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Like his predecessors on past and current CBS morning shows, Sorenson is expected to change that.

“I don’t think it’s impossible,” says Sorenson, 33, a former vice president of KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. “I think it’s tough, though.”

Recent Nielsens contained a ray of hope for the CBS reveille team of Harry Smith and Kathleen Sullivan. The ratings were up two-tenths of a point from those of the previous November.

To improve on that, Sorenson, plans some changes: a different musical arrangement of the show’s theme music; more ratings-boosting travel, and what he calls “more visual variety.”

He is also trying to get “name” contributors on various topics, among them Chicago-based movie critic Gene Siskel, best-known from the syndicated “Siskel & Ebert” film review series. He has also hired two new full-time staffers, features reporter Wayne Freedman and, from KCBS, entertainment reporter Steve Kmetko.

And, in a move that got his show some publicity last week, he hired CBS Sports reporter Greg Gumbel, the brother of “Today” co-host Bryant Gumbel, to do sports segments.

But Sorenson doesn’t think his show will get a swarm of disaffected “Today” viewers next month when Jane Pauley yields her co-host chair there to Deborah Norville.

He theorizes that ABC’s “Good Morning America” would be the chief beneficiary of any “Today” viewer defection simply because it has been on since 1975 and, like its NBC rival, is a place of relative stability.

Asked if Sullivan and Smith will continue as anchors all next year on “CBS This Morning,” Sorenson immediately replied, “Yes.”