CBS Morning Hopes May Rest With Her

They’ve got the pricey glass studio on Fifth Avenue. They’ve got the former anchor of NBC’s “Today,” the morning show gold standard, and the executive producer that kept “Today” No. 1.

But once again, on this Monday morning, “Today” is still causing chaos at CBS’ “The Early Show.”

Steve Friedman, the “Today” veteran now running the “Early Show,” weaves among producers in the control room, keeping a close eye on the competition on 10 TV screens hanging from the ceiling. He’s mocking his old show’s first broadcast from the Sydney Olympics because it is taped except for the news and weather updates. And he’s poking fun at weatherman Al Roker’s interview with U.S. Open tennis champ Venus Williams, happening live in NBC’s outdoor studios several blocks west in Rockefeller Center.

But as the Roker interview runs longer and longer, suddenly the mirth turns serious. The studio that Friedman helped create is hosting the guest who’s supposed to be on his show.

“Venus showed up to talk to Al Roker for a few minutes and blew us off,” he says angrily.

But all this pressure is unbeknown to “The Early Show” co-anchors, Jane Clayson and Bryant Gumbel. Clayson, brightly dressed in a two-piece yellow dress and jacket, is chit-chatting with Gumbel about the perfect cabinet handles she checked out that weekend on Gumbel’s recommendation.

All that small talk aside, if “The Early Show” is ever going to end the “Today” domination and halt NBC’s long-standing habit of driving CBS batty early every morning, it might be up to the newcomer, Clayson.

Clayson is still learning the ins and outs of the city she’s lived in for 11 months. She’s still learning that a $15 manicure in Greenwich Village is not a bargain. It falls to a colleague to explain that she can find them in New York for under $10, just as she could in her former home, Los Angeles.

And she’s also still learning the ins and outs of the cutthroat morning world. All eyes have been on “The Early Show” since its debut last November because its predecessor, “CBS This Morning,” was perpetually in third place. The media and the affiliates want to be dazzled.

It hasn’t happened yet. Even though CBS invested about $30 million in a new street-side studio and overhauled its entire morning news operation--including a new staff of producers, executives and reporters--”The Early Show” ratings haven’t impressed. Critics have described the show with less than flattering adjectives.

Perhaps more important, the show has not been picked up for its full two hours by all of the country’s CBS affiliates. About 25% of the country’s stations choose not to carry the full two hours. Instead, they broadcast local news from 7 to 8 a.m. with just two 10-minute cut-ins to “The Early Show,” and then broadcast the show’s final hour at 8 a.m.

Still, Clayson is proud of everything “The Early Show” has accomplished in its first year. She doesn’t let the negative write-ups rattle her and instead reiterates how difficult it is to change morning viewing habits.

“Everybody’s a critic, and everybody’s got their own opinion,” Clayson says. “Everybody can have those expectations, but I decided I have to do my job to the best of my ability every day. I can’t let all of that bother me. If you were to compare our show to the other two, you would see that we’re very competitive most days with most interviews and most bookings. We’re under no illusions that we’re going to come in and turn this around overnight. We’re in this for the long haul.”

From Hard News to Hanson Q&A;

CBS called its search for Gumbel’s co-anchor “operation glass slipper,” but when the call came to Clayson, she didn’t look much like Cinderella.

With her mother by her side, a bathrobe-clad Clayson was recuperating in her Los Angeles home from minor surgery. She was so groggy from anesthesia that she could barely utter the words to accept the job that CBS News President Andrew Heyward was offering.

That was a Wednesday morning in late August. By Nov. 1, when “The Early Show” made its debut, Clayson had left her job as a correspondent for ABC News in Los Angeles, found an apartment on New York’s Upper West Side and helped create a new, two-hour morning news show.

Clayson mostly has reported hard news since graduating from Brigham Young University (she’s a practicing Mormon) in 1990, working first as an anchor-reporter in Salt Lake City and then as an ABC news correspondent. While at ABC, she covered the O.J. Simpson civil trial and the crash of TWA Flight 800.

Now she does the news and interviews celebrities such as George Clooney and Boyz II Men. It took time to get used to morning news, where anchors are encouraged to let their personalities through, without trivializing serious stories.

Nowhere was that more evident than this Monday morning, when she moderated a debate between Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, and Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children’s Television, about the effects of on-screen Hollywood violence. Then she switched gears to interview the boy band Hanson.

Before heading out to the show’s patio to do the interview, Clayson, 33, had to check quickly with the crew to confirm that, yes, they sing “MmmBop.” When the interview was over, Zac, the group’s youngest member, pinched Clayson on the cheek. Then she introduced a segment about the final “Cats” show on Broadway, dressed up in an authentic costume from the show. That drew whistles from the crew--especially when she put on the collar.

“I don’t know about the coat, but the hair’s an improvement,” said Gumbel, joking. Clayson playfully wrapped her tail around his neck.

Gumbel, 52, and Clayson are different both in style and in their generation. And that’s exactly why Friedman hired her. He wanted someone the audience “could root for.” Clayson is a newcomer to morning television in a sea of anchors who have been on the morning news circuit for a long time.

When asked why her co-anchor has a reputation for being prickly, Clayson avoids the subject by praising his strengths.

“You know, I don’t know [why he has a bad reputation], because he’s never been that way with me,” she said. “Bryant is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around. You would think someone who has been in this business for 25 years would just mail it in, come in just before the broadcast and try to sail in on their talent and their experience. That guy is here at 4:30 a.m., just like the rest of us. He’s been nothing but supportive of me, and I respect him for that.”