The second incarnation emphasized general national and international news stories and in-depth reports throughout each edition, although it also included live in-studio and pre-taped interviews.

In August 1996, the program was revamped again, as simply This Morning, with Mark McEwen and Jane Robelot as co-hosts, news anchor José Díaz-Balart (succeeded by Cynthia Bowers, then Thalia Assuras, and finally Julie Chen) and Craig Allen (of WCBS-TV and WCBS-AM in New York City) serving as weather anchor.

Though it had occasional peaks in the ratings, The Early Show was a perennial third-place finisher behind NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America.

In its last year, The Early Show shied away from the news, features, light stories and "infotainment" approach used by the program since its debut, that it based on the formats of its two main competitors.

[8][9] Licht promised an "outside the box" approach to CBS This Morning, insisting that the show would not include forced anchor banter, cooking segments, "comedic weather forecasters, [or] cheering fans on an outdoor plaza.

"[9][10][11] On July 26, 2012, CBS announced that its Chief White House Correspondent Norah O'Donnell would replace Hill starting in September 2012.

On November 20, 2017, Rose was fired by CBS following a report in The Washington Post in which eight women accused him of sexual harassment.

Both hours began with the "EyeOpener - Your World According To Us", a fast-paced 90-second video montage of the day's top stories, ending with overnight sports highlights clips and quips from late-night talk shows.

However, the program would use local meteorologists from CBS stations to provide the forecast during major severe weather events (such as hurricanes, wildfires, and blizzards).

[23] A section of the studio's exterior, covered in white walls and adorned with the CBS Eye logo (and also bearing the message shown at right), was featured in promos for the show that began airing in early December 2011.

After the facility was closed once more on March 18, the program began broadcasting from the Ed Sullivan Theater on the set of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (where Licht now serves as producer),[26][27][28][29] before switching to a remote work format.

On May 6, 2019, it was announced that Dickerson and O'Donnell would leave CBS This Morning, with Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil named as successors.

Like the weekend editions of other network morning shows, the program has a greater focus on human-interest pieces than on weekdays, though it still concentrates primarily on the news of the day during the first half-hour.

An exception to the usual Saturday format occurred on February 2, 2013 (the day before Super Bowl XLVII), when the weekday anchor team hosted from New Orleans (where the game was held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome), an edition that was branded as simply CBS This Morning (instead of CBS This Morning Saturday) and was formatted similarly to the weekday program, including "EyeOpener" segments at the top of both hours.

In the Southern Hemisphere, in the Commonwealth of Australia, a trimmed version (for 70 minutes excluding commercials) of the CBS This Morning weekday edition aired on CBS's sister network (since November 2017) Network 10, along with regional affiliates Southern Cross 10, and from July 2016 to July 2021 WIN, on Monday - Friday mornings from 4:30 a.m. until 6:00 a.m. AEST with the Friday edition held over to the following Monday.

Until recent March 2020, the program was broadcast weekday mornings from 4:30 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., with the Friday edition usually held over to the following Monday.

As a result of Network 10's plans to give local mid morning program Studio 10 a natural lead in for watching by Australian viewers, the program would now air four days a week, in direct competition to rivals of Network Seven's Sunrise and Nine's Today (Australian version), with encores of CBS daytime soap opera dramas The Bold and the Beautiful to air for two hours on Monday mornings from 6:00 a.m.

He noted the absence of tabloid news items, saying "[what] CBS This Morning didn't have – that, too, provides a good argument for watching.

"[37] Gail Shister of TVNewser gave Charlie Rose "an A for effort" for stretching past his usual slate of hard news into pop-culture stories.

"[38] CBS This Morning won a Peabody Award in 2014 for "its timely, meaningful look into the face and mind of a tyrant" in the feature story "One-on-One with Assad".