CBS Tries to Awaken ‘This Morning’

The alarm clock is jangling for CBS’ “This Morning” but the network is finding it slow-going to drag the broadcast out of bed.

A dramatic overhaul of the third-place program, from a new studio to replacing main anchors Mark McEwen and Jane Robelot, has quickly moved to high priority, but the network’s ambitious plans, being spearheaded by CBS Television President Leslie Moonves and CBS News President Andrew Heyward, aren’t easily falling in place. A key question is whether former “Today” co-anchor Bryant Gumbel, now a high-paid CBS anchor with no major assignment, can be convinced to return to the morning beat--and much effort is being focused on making that happen.

With Moonves leading the way, much as he pushed for the recent launch of “60 Minutes II,” everyone at CBS, including CBS News, has finally agreed that the time is right for a serious drive to retool the broadcast. The show has made fair ratings and revenue progress in the last couple years and it even had one fleeting December week of second-place ratings, for the first time in more than a decade. Still, season to date, it remains firmly in third place with NBC averaging 5.2 million viewers; ABC, 3 million; and CBS, 2.5 million. And it has largely been unable to capitalize on the giant opening it has been presented: the woes facing the second-place broadcast, ABC’s “Good Morning America.” That show’s rapid ratings loss has only recently been stemmed by the stop-gap anchor team of Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson, and they have said they will move on, likely within the year, meaning more upheaval.

Any changes at CBS depend on most of the pieces falling into place all at the same time, and people familiar with the situation caution that while nothing is imminent, the hope is to get something put together by fall. The network is unlikely to move the studio if it can’t get high-profile talent for the job, and anchors such as Gumbel are unlikely to take the job if CBS isn’t committed to making it a higher-profile broadcast.

CBS chief executive Mel Karmazin two weeks ago signed off on plans to move “This Morning” to a new street-level studio on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, diagonally across from Central Park, a decision not expected to be affected by Karmazin’s statement Thursday that he was toying with the idea of buying NBC.

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The new studio complex would help “This Morning” compete with outdoor-fronted studios at the show’s rivals. Although the deal is far from completed, if other logistics are worked out, the complex, which will cost about $30 million, is also expected to house morning and noon news studios for the CBS-owned station in New York, WCBS, and a high-profile space for CBS’ various Web ventures. Any improvement in the morning show would have particular benefits for CBS’ owned stations and its affiliates, the majority of whom intertwine their local morning programs with the network broadcast in a much closer way than NBC or ABC stations do.

But what to put in the new studio, if it comes to pass, remains a question for the CBS executives who are driving the revamp, including WCBS vice president and station manager Steve Friedman, the former executive producer of NBC’s “Today” show.

Although it’s a long-shot, several top CBS executives want Gumbel to take over in the morning, and are putting increasing pressure on him to take the job, said people familiar with the situation. Gumbel, who co-anchored a first-place “Today” when Friedman was the executive producer, is being paid upward of $5 million annually by CBS, but has no regular assignment, following the failure of his high-profile prime-time newsmagazine “Public Eye” last year, a failure for which he has told people he partly blames the network.

Gumbel is working on developing syndicated shows under a deal he has with the CBS syndication wing, Eyemark, but he has been largely invisible on CBS’ airwaves recently, except to anchor an end-of-the-year special. He didn’t help his internal image with some when he was featured recently on the cover of a golf magazine, particularly given the very visible additional duties being taken on by other high-profile news anchors--from ABC’s Sawyer to Dan Rather’s role on CBS’ newest newsmagazine, “60 Minutes II.” Gumbel is also expected to appear on “This Morning” today to promote his annual charity golf tournament.

Whom to pair with Gumbel, if he can even be convinced to take the job, is a question that has quickly turned into a problem. CBS has been casting a wide net in its search, which has included a look at ABC News prime-time correspondent and weekend anchor Elizabeth Vargas, who was formerly the “Good Morning America” news reader. There’s also an in-house possibility, Thalia Assuras, currently the show’s news anchor. She earned high marks from CBS News executives when she sat in during Robelot’s recent maternity leave.

Another person CBS has flirted with is Deborah Norville, a former correspondent on the CBS newsmagazines “Street Stories” and “America Tonight.” But two things make that scenario unlikely: She is in the midst of negotiating a new contract with King World’s syndicated “Inside Edition,” which she has anchored for four years, and, perhaps more importantly, Gumbel is likely to be cool to being reunited with her. The two were paired briefly during Norville’s short, unhappy tenure as the replacement for Jane Pauley on “Today.” Norville declined to comment, and Gumbel couldn’t be reached.

Further complicating the process is the fact that CBS and ABC, which is also looking for new anchor talent, are scouting some of the same people.

CBS News says it is looking at every aspect of the broadcast, but it declined to comment.

* “This Morning” airs on KCBS weekdays 7-9 a.m.