CBS Moves 3 Days After Rene Syler’s Dismissal
Three days after announcing the dismissal of co-host Rene Syler from “The Early Show,” CBS announced Thursday that Russ Mitchell, who anchors on the weekends for the network, would join the morning program as part of his duties.
Both are black journalists.
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Mitchell will be news anchor of “The Early Show,” it was announced by Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports. Mitchell also will file reports for the broadcast and serve as a substitute anchor, effective Jan. 2, the announcement said.
“This move will establish a permanent hard-news presence on THE EARLY SHOW and allow us to further define the roles of our anchors,” McManus said in a statement.
When CBS announced Monday that Syler was leaving Dec. 22 “to pursue other media opportunities,” Michele Greppi wrote in TV Week that the development “gives CBS News a chance to pare down the 4-year-old, four-person ‘Early’ ensemble that is the largest on any network morning show, with co-anchors Harry Smith, Hannah Storm and weatherman/bon vivant Dave Price. [“The Early Show” also lists Julie Chen as a co-anchor.]
“CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus has said he would turn his attention to third-ranked ‘Early Show’ after he got ‘CBS Evening News With Katie Couric‘ launched,” she wrote.
But a spokeswoman told Journal-isms on Monday that what happens next with the program was “still to be determined.” Syler said she was told only that the show planned to move “in another direction.” Her contract runs until October 2008.
Media watchers of color, such as critic Eric Deggans of the St. Petersburg Times, wondered aloud about CBS’ commitment to diversity. Deggans wrote on his blog, “There’s a mighty shallow bench among non-white journalists at CBS News. . . . her departure and [Ed] Bradley’s painful Nov. 9 death have eliminated two of the highest-profile black journalists at CBS News.
“And there aren’t many people poised to take their place.”
On Thursday, Gail Shister reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer that CBS knew when it took Syler off “The Early Show” that she was planning to undergo a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy next month.
New ratings show that “Today” was the most-watched morning-news program in total viewers and the key adults 25-54 demographic for the week of Nov. 27. “Today” stayed in the top slot for the 573rd consecutive week.
“Lagging far behind was CBS’ Early Show, with 3.03 million viewers and 1.28 million in the demo,” Rebecca Stropoli said in Broadcasting & Cable on Thursday, though CBS said its show “enjoyed its largest total viewers figure . . . in nearly a year.”
Mitchell is to retain his current duties as anchor of the “CBS Evening News with Russ Mitchell” on Sunday nights, as one of the rotating anchors of the Saturday edition of the “CBS Evening News,” and would continue as a correspondent for “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
“It’s a good move for CBS to feature Russ Mitchell on the more highly visible [‘Early Show’] as a news anchor,” Barbara Ciara, vice president/broadcast of the National Association of Black Journalists, told Journal-isms Thursday night. “It’s clearly a position he is overqualified for, but NABJ has concerns about the big diversity picture at CBS News.”
In TV Week, Greppi wrote that the assignment “will make Mr. Mitchell the hardest-working anchor at CBSâ??and only four weeks into his marriage to Karina Mahtani, who freelances entertainment reports to CBS.”
