CBS Mornings expands to three hours – in some places
And one of those places is Chicago, as CBS Chicago sacrifices 9 a.m. newscast on linear
[Editor’s Note: This post was updated on September 27.]
Tony Dokoupil and Adriana Diaz were named anchors of CBS’ new third-hour extension of CBS Mornings called CBS Morning Plus, airing live weekday mornings at 9 a.m. beginning September 30.
But instead of airing the third hour over CBS, it’ll stream on CBS News 24/7 (formerly CBSN), the network’s all-news streaming platform. In an interesting twist, five CBS-owned stations will air the third hour on its linear outlets – including CBS Chicago (WBBM-TV), replacing its existing 9 a.m. local newscast.
KCBS Los Angeles, KPIX San Francisco, WWJ-TV Detroit, and WFOR Miami are other stations airing the third hour. Not participating is WCBS New York, which is replacing its 9 a.m. newscast on September 9 with The Drew Barrymore Show for the full hour.
“CBS Morning Plus is a great example of how our broadcast and beyond strategy is leveraging the strengths of our most important brands to grow the audience and position CBS News and Stations for the future. At the same time, it highlights our commitment to delivering best-in-class journalism on every platform,” said Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures. “We are building on the momentum of CBS Mornings and giving audiences more of the signature storytelling and differentiated reporting that they have come to expect from CBS News in the mornings.”
Anchored by Dokoupil, Gayle King, and Nate Burleson, CBS Mornings has seen ratings growth in what is traditionally a tough daypart for CBS. However, the show still places behind NBC’s Today, ABC’s Good Morning America, and locally, WGN Morning News. CBS’ morning program has fewer frills than the other two network shows, which usually frequently features tie-ins to their primetime shows, outdoor concerts, and glitzy studios. Dokoupil will continue to co-anchor CBS Mornings.
NBC added the third and fourth hours of Today years ago; ABC added a third hour of GMA in 2018, airing at noon CT.
With the extension of CBS Mornings to a third hour, CBS Chicago will now air its 9 a.m. newscast exclusively on its streaming news channel CBS News Chicago. Originally, CBS Chicago and other CBS-owned stations launched a 9 a.m. newscast two years ago with the first half-hour on linear and streaming and the second half-hour exclusively on their streaming news channel with the linear outlet airing entertainment programming, usually Drew. In September 2023, Drew moved to the afternoons and CBS Chicago began airing a full hour of its newscast on CBS Chicago’s linear and streaming channels.
The move was part of an initiative by McMahon to add local news after CBS Mornings, but it’s clear the station group is moving back from that mission. The local newscasts at 9 a.m. did not make much of a ratings impact opposite the dominant WGN Morning News and other morning shows, including Live With Kelly and Mark and Today, so this may be another reason why CBS decided to replace local news with the third hour of CBS Mornings.
It isn’t known if this would lead to CBS taking time back to program CBS Mornings down the line, as most stations are profitable local news or syndicated programming. The last time CBS gave an hour back to affiliates to program themselves in daytime was in 1993.