Clayson to Exit CBS’ ‘Early Show’

CBS News has finally made one decision about the future of “The Early Show”: Co-host Jane Clayson will leave the third-place morning program at the end of the month.

After weeks of speculation, the network is expected to announce today that Clayson will return to reporting, which is what got her noticed at ABC News before she was hired at CBS. Effective Sept. 30, she’ll become a correspondent for the “CBS Evening News,” working mostly on the lengthier “Eye on America” investigative and enterprise pieces. She’ll also be a substitute CBS News anchor and do work for the renamed prime-time newsmagazine “48 Hours Investigates.”

Clayson, who has been with “The Early Show” since it was launched in November 1999, has soldiered on opposite a series of guest co-anchors since Bryant Gumbel departed in May. CBS has taken its time trying to figure out what to do with the show since Gumbel’s exit, after one possible quick fix--hiring Meredith Vieira from ABC’s “The View”--didn’t pan out.

Although the Gumbel-Clayson team, which operated out of a new street-level studio across from Manhattan’s Central Park, improved CBS’ morning appeal among younger viewers, it never made much of a dent against NBC’s top-rated “Today” show and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” which has recently made strides, although it remains in second place.

“It’s been a long summer, it’s been a challenging summer, to try to juggle all the different personalities that have been there and to react to their strengths and weaknesses,” Clayson said Sunday. “But I think it’s just further strengthened my skills. It’s been a great three years and I would not change a minute of it. Now I’m looking forward to returning back to my roots in good, solid journalism.”

Clayson, 35, is expected to stay on morning duty through Sept. 27. It’s unclear whether CBS will have a new team set to take over then or will continue with guest hosts. The network’s decision to go with two new hosts in the morning is unusual because that’s a time period when sleepy viewers are thought to prefer continuity.

Clayson said she’s proud of some “Early Show” accomplishments, including the fact that “for the first time, the time slot became very, very profitable for CBS.”