It debuted as a half-hour broadcast anchored by Mike Wallace, who joined the network that year, and aired Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Wallace left the program to serve as co-host on the news magazine show 60 Minutes (initially aired bi-weekly in September 1968), which saw him cover topics such as Richard Nixon's 1968 comeback presidential campaign.

[6] In an effort to emulate Today, which had Barbara Walters as a co-anchor, Rudd was teamed up with former The Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn, who received considerable publicity despite having no prior television experience.

Despite the anchor turnover through the years, the broadcast set a consistent tone which emphasized news and ideas over celebrity gossip or self-help tips.

Despite critical acclaim, the program remained dead last in the ratings, and CBS was under more pressure from affiliates to present a more viable morning competitor, particularly since the Sunday edition did better with viewers.

By this time management decided that morning news programming should be more competitive and hired Bill Kurtis, anchor of the highly rated evening newscasts at WBBM-TV in Chicago, as Sawyer's co-host.

[13] CBS News correspondents Jane Wallace and Meredith Vieira briefly alternated as interim co-host in an on-air try-out that lasted several months, but both were passed over for the permanent spot.

Instead, CBS settled for former Miss America and The NFL Today co-host Phyllis George, who was given a three-year contract following a mere two-week trial run.

[14] Disputes between Kurtis and CBS over his role with George "over matters of journalistic style and substance" led to him leaving the job for WBBM-TV in June.

That infamous interview alienated audiences and was blasted by critics,[17][18] helping to put an unpleasant close to George's television career at this initial mark.

[24] With the loss of what had been its biggest block of air time in one form or another for two decades, dozens of employees were laid off, a factor that cost Sauter his job.

[22] In an August 1986 Newsweek article, columnist Jonathan Alter wrote regarding the move, "The CBS Morning News was simply shot dead.

Underappreciated co-anchors Forrest Sawyer and Maria Shriver left the air with a classy farewell after the network's announcement that the perennially lagging show would be canceled by the end of the year.

"[25] Tom Shales reported in The Washington Post, "throughout the industry there is shock and derision for the way CBS has handled [the] Morning News, so long its problem child.

"[26] On January 12, 1987, The Morning Program made its debut[27] hosted by actress Mariette Hartley and Rolland Smith, former longtime anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City.

However, The Morning Program, with its awkward mix of news, entertainment and comedy, became the joke of the industry, receiving scathing reviews; Hartley in particular was panned by critics.

Hartley and Smith were dumped (the former departed the program two weeks early and was replaced by Sandy Hill, who had formerly co-hosted Good Morning America[32]), while Saget left to star on the ABC sitcom Full House.

On December 5, 2007, CBS announced that Maggie Rodriguez (who had joined the program earlier that year as anchor of its Saturday edition) would succeed Storm as co-anchor.

The Early Show itself debuted a new set on January 7, 2008, when it also abandoned the aforementioned local/national hybrid format, opting to require its stations carry the entire two-hour broadcast.

The Early Show enjoyed a relatively successful May sweeps, racking up a 5% increase in total viewership year-to-year while remaining flat in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic, at a time when both Today and Good Morning America were shedding viewers to the tune of 3 and 4% respectively.

[43][44] Howard Kurtz's Washington Post profile of CBS Early Show co-host Maggie Rodriguez said her addition to the program accounts for "an uptick in the ratings, lifting spirits at the broadcast".

Rodriguez landed some high-profile interviews with the grandparents of Caylee Anthony, Levi Johnston, and disgraced former Roman Catholic priest Alberto Cutié, who later became an Episcopal minister.

[46] Around this time, Koeppen left The Early Show to become a primary news anchor for CBS-owned KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh; her spot as consumer correspondent was not replaced.

In January 2010, Erica Hill became the program's news update anchor, joining Smith, Rodriguez, Price and now features correspondent Chen.

In March 2011, the program introduced a redesigned set, which included a new anchor desk backdrop, a new reporter area and a blue color scheme.

[54] In September 2007, CBS sought to get The Early Show out of the ratings basement by hiring Shelley Ross, who previously served as executive producer of Good Morning America from 1999 to 2004.

WKRC-TV in Cincinnati began airing the full two-hour Early Show broadcast, while moving the third hour of its local morning newscast to the station's CW-affiliated subchannel.

Industry insiders considered Shelley Ross' influence to be a serious threat to raising the profile of the program to turn it into a true competitor to NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America.

[60][61] When the show reformatted with new hosts and set, an instrumental version of the same-titled track from Sting's 1999 hit album, "Brand New Day" until late October 2006, when it was replaced by a variant of the James Horner theme originally composed that year for the CBS Evening News.

On January 7, 2008, as part of CBS's attempt to relaunch the show with new hosts and set, an updated version of Horner's composition was introduced; the theme was modified a number of times after the format change.