For starters, I will admit that The Early Show is coming in with pretty much a serious bias against it, and it's no real fault of theirs. On Tuesdays, I tend to be pretty groggy first thing and it takes me awhile to get alert. So basically, I'm staring at the television thinking "who are you people and what are you talking about?" It also doesn't help that I don't have the time to sit through the full two hours this Tuesday.
Nonetheless, this show moves quickly, within the first 14 minutes, Harry Smith (who apart from Julie Chen and "weatherman" Dave Price is the only person on screen who I knew) covered about 3 stories with relative depth, joked around Dave Price, and then introduced a story about the New Orleans Saints returning to The Superdome. I haven't even had my morning cigarette yet.
The Early Show seems to have the same wagging-finger-"Back in my day, they didn't do that" tone that parts of Sunday Morning have. Appropriately, they give these stories to Harry Smith, who used to host that bastion of wagging-finger television: A&E's Biography. Meanwhile the female co-anchors: Julie Chen, Hannah Storm, and Rene Styler smile in the background, and Dave Price mugs like Al Roker.
I've always noticed that CBS News shows for some reason have this gauze fliter over them that makes everything look very...um...hazy. I don't know why CBS News does this, but I've noticed it on every single CBS News programme I've seen on several different stations. It's like looking at television from the womb. I guess wagging-finger television wants to make everything look as cozy as possible to its viewers.
What surprises me is that I remember when this show started they were trying to make CBS's morning show more appealing to a wider spectrum (that's why they hired Bryant Gumbel). Well, you can do as many tie-ins to CBS & CW programming and talk about current pop stars, but the show just seems so "blah" like Metamucil.
Interestingly, the format of The Early Show is rather freeform, there is no set time for a news digest--in fact, I don't think there is no real news digest on this show. Dave Price is thrown in randomly just to liven up the preceedings. If there is any pattern or format that emerges it's this: Harry Smith: Be Scared; Julie Chen: Celebrity talk; Hannah Storm: Sports or "isn't that cool?;" Rene Styler: Lifestyle segments. They may try to switch them all around on occasion, but even if Harry Smith is talking about a dog on surfboard, my gut reaction is telling me to be scared, and I could not possibly take Julie Chen talking about a nuclear arms proliferation with any degree of sincerity.
Next on the "let's scare you first thing in the morning" theme: A rash of armed robberies in LA restaurants. I haven't even had my protein shake yet and you're already trying to keep me from leaving home. This is followed by a story about doctors not telling patients all they need to about their prescriptions. Oh joy! I can't leave home and I can't trust my doctor to tell me the truth about the anti-anxiety medication I'd need in order to leave the home.
All of this wouldn't be a problem, if the show wasn't so damn sober. They may put a harmonica on the bumpers, and use a very light conversational voice in talking about subjects, but you just get the sense that they are dying to pull the rug out from under you. It's like "isn't Jessica Simpson crazy? Now, let's talking about impending world war." As baffling as Good Morning America was to me, at least they eased you into the downer subjects. Would Walter Kronkite approve?
And the big stories of the second hour? Dogs who swim and Dave Price's trip to Vancouver to hang/mug around backstage with John Mayer.
Come back Bryant, all is forgiven. This show needs someone with a caustic sense of humour.
On deck: Today or "3 Hours at The Rockefeller Center Bar, Lounge, and Tourist Office"
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