| CBS News Sunday Morning | |
|---|---|
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| Also known as | Sunday Morning CBS Sunday Morning |
| Genre | News magazine |
| Created by |
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| Directed by |
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| Presented by |
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| Theme music composer | |
| Opening theme | "Abblasen" byWynton Marsalis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 45 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 63 minutes (with commercials) |
| Production company | CBS News |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | January 28, 1979 (1979-01-28) – present |
| Related | |
| CBS Mornings CBS Saturday Morning CBS News Mornings | |
CBS News Sunday Morning (frequently shortened toSunday Morning) is an American televisionnewsmagazine that has aired onCBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and E.S. "Bud" Lamoreaux III, and originally hosted byCharles Kuralt, the 90-minute program currently airs Sundays between 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.EST, and between 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.PST. Since October 9, 2016, the program has been hosted byJane Pauley, who also hosts news segments. Her predecessor,Charles Osgood, hostedSunday Morning for twenty-two years (and is the program's longest-serving host) after taking over from Kuralt on April 10, 1994.
On January 28, 1979, CBS launchedSunday Morning withCharles Kuralt as host. It was originally conceived to be a broadcast version of aSunday newspaper magazine supplement, most typified byThe New York Times Magazine. When the network introduced its new six-day-a-week morning show format on January 22, 1979, CBS News' weekday morning broadcasts were similarly branded asMonday Morning throughFriday Morning respectively, and were produced on the same set. However, these broadcasts emphasizedhard news as opposed toSunday Morning's focus onfeature stories.CBS News Sunday Morning was the first weekend morning network news program on American television;[note 1] at the time of its debut, the major broadcast networks usually airedpublic affairs, religious and children's programs on Sunday mornings (many of which were preempted by their affiliates for local and syndicated programming). The newsmagazine took over the 90-minute slot previously occupied by three long-running series: religious programsLamp Unto My Feet andLook Up and Live, and artsanthology seriesCamera Three.
Originally anchored by Bob Schieffer,[1] Kuralt eventually took over the daily role, and was for a short time joined byDiane Sawyer as co-host. However, the weekday program's then-limited 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.EST air time (the long-runningCaptain Kangaroo was entrenched in the 8:00 a.m. hour) hampered its ability to compete withToday on NBC andGood Morning America onABC, though it expanded to ninety minutes (from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. EST) in 1981 and was renamed simplyMorning.
In 1982, the weekday version was extended to two hours (7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.) and reverted to its previous title as theCBS Morning News, adopting a different set and distinct graphics in the process; by March, Kuralt had been replaced byBill Kurtis. Meanwhile, Kuralt continued hostingSunday Morning until April 3, 1994, when he retired after fifteen years and was succeeded byCharles Osgood.
Although the attempt to apply the same format to weekday broadcasts proved unsuccessful, the Sunday broadcast survived and retains its original format, including elements of its original graphic and set design. Long after the daily editions ended,Sunday Morning's opening sequence continued to display all seven days of the week until the early 2000s.
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Osgood's first broadcast as host was on April 10, 1994. Ultimately, his tenure of twenty-two years as host exceeded Kuralt's fifteen. Osgood's final broadcast as host was on September 25, 2016.
Among Osgood's personal trademarks were hisbow-tie, his weekly signoff ("Until then, I'll see you on the radio") and his propensity for delivering his commentaries in whimsical verse. For example, when theUnited States Census Bureau invented a designation for cohabitant(s) as "Person(s) of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters", or "POSSLQ", Osgood turned it into a pronounceable three-syllable word and composed a prospective love poem that included these lines, which he later used as the title of one of his books:[2]
On January 25, 2004,Sunday Morning celebrated its 25th anniversary with clips and highlights from the show's first quarter-century on the air. On February 1, 2009, the program celebrated its 30th anniversary, and segments examined how the world had changed in the three decades its debut, the history ofSundays in the U.S. and–as a tie-in to the show's logo–the physics of the sun. An artist was commissioned to create new sun logos for the program, which debuted on that edition and were used in future broadcasts. On May 17, 2009,Sunday Morning began broadcasting inhigh-definition. In 2014, rebroadcasts of the program began airing on sister cable networkSmithsonian Channel (owned by CBS's parent companyViacomCBS) but has since been pulled from that channel's programming.
In 2014,Jane Pauley, a former co-host ofNBC'sToday, appeared as an interview subject onSunday Morning; positive audience response to this segment led to Pauley being hired as a contributor to the show later that year. Pauley was elevated to the role of the program's host in 2016, succeeding Osgood, once again making her the anchor of a regular morning news program for the first time in over twenty-five years and becoming her first job as the host of any television program since 2005; she continues in this role as of 2024.[3][4] Pauley began her role as host on October 9, 2016, nearly forty years to the day since her debut onToday.
Each edition follows a storytotem pole in the center of the CBSsoundstage, with previews of featured stories set to air during the broadcast (the first four of which feature clips from the story packages with preview narration by the respective correspondent) during the introduction. Each story covered in a given episode has a glass plate with its headline on this pole (digitally inserted on the pole as a prepared graphic since the late 2000s), which the camera follows after the host's introductions. Music in the show is usually limited to the opening and closing title theme. The host introduces each story with a shortmonologue, then sends the show out to the taped segment. The show usually ends with a preview of next week'sSunday Morning broadcast. After the commercial break, there is a thirty-second tranquil nature scene.
For most of its history, the program was typically presented live, with a short summary of national and international news headlines, sports, and a national weather forecast right after the featured story teasers, and a preview of the guests and topics to air on that week'sFace the Nation (which follows the program on most CBS stations) near the end of the program. During the occasional weeks thatSunday Morning aired a pre-taped theme broadcast, the headlines segment would instead be presented live by another anchor. By early 2022, observers noted thatSunday Morning had quietly shifted to a pre-taped format; in the event of a major weekend news story, it may be presented with a generic on-set introduction combined with an off-set voiceover by the host.[5]
Notably,Sunday Morning includes significant coverage of thefine andperforming arts, including coverage of topics usually not covered in network news, such asarchitecture,painting,ballet,opera andclassical music, though increasingly more popular forms of music have been included as well. The program's correspondents tend to ask nontraditional questions of guests (for instance, actorBrad Pitt was asked about his love of architecture, andGrant Hill about his painting collection). Television essays also appear, and the program generally has a stable of equally positive and negative news stories to fill up the program when there is nobreaking news of note. Story lengths are longer (lasting up to twelve minutes at a time) and the pace of the program is considerably quieter and more relaxed thanCBS Mornings andCBS Saturday Morning, even after those programs began sharing some ofSunday Morning's branding elements.
CommentatorsBen Stein andNancy Giles appear in recurring segments to deliver opinion commentaries, and correspondentBill Geist also contributes human interest stories.[6][7] The program ends with a nature scene, not given a formal title for most of the program's history, but since entitled "Moment of Nature" as it is now a sponsored element.
Despite the stereotype of the program appealing primarily tosenior citizens,[8]Sunday Morning has actually placed first in its time slot in the key demographic of adults 25–54, beating all of the political discussion-drivenSunday morning talk shows.[9][10]
In April 1986,Sunday Morning departed from its usual format to carry a special, two-hour episode focusing on Russian pianistVladimir Horowitz; the first half-hour consisted of a feature story following Horowitz's preparations for his first recital in theSoviet Union since 1925, and was followed by a live 90-minute telecast of the performance from theBolshoi Theatre. Kuralt stated that it was only the third time in the history ofSunday Morning that an entire episode had been devoted to a single subject. The special was broadcast with limited commercial interruption, with sponsorship fromAT&T.[11][12]
The program is marked by its distinctiveSun of May-style logo, which is prominent in the program's title sequence. In addition, in between some segments, images of the sun in various forms also appear. The show's theme is thetrumpet fanfare "Abblasen", attributed toGottfried Reiche. A recording of the piece on abaroque trumpet byDon Smithers was used as the show's theme for many years until producers decided to replace thevinyl recording with adigital of a piccolo trumpet byDoc Severinsen; the current version is played byWynton Marsalis.[13]
Sunday Morning and CBS' other morning news programs, under varying names and formats, have remained fully separate productions, though with occasional cross-promotion and some sharing of correspondents. On August 31, 2021, the network announced that its weekday morning show would be relaunched for the latest time asCBS Mornings and its Saturday counterpart asCBS Saturday Morning. Under this latest reformatting, both programs have taken on some branding elements ofSunday Morning like its logo and "Abblasen" fanfare, although with a more contemporary feel and aspects of CBS's new corporate branding.[14] Its second hour also features a larger focus on long-form stories not unlikeSunday Morning.[14][15]
On May 21, 2023,Sunday Morning received an updated logo and graphics package to align itself with other CBS News programs, while preserving the program's existing look and feel in a refreshed form rather than using the versions used byCBS Mornings.[16]
NeurologistSteven Novella and paranormal investigatorJoe Nickell wrote in separateSkeptical Inquirer articles aboutErin Moriarty's lack of skepticism and "complete journalistic fail" over a March 2018 segment in which she showed clips of spoon-benderUri Geller from the 1980s performing "'psychic parlor tricks'" but instead of explaining to her audience that Geller had been debunked many times, with no mention of the work ofJames Randi. Novella stated of Moriarty "is (most likely) just an old-school journalist who thinks of paranormal pieces as 'fluff' pieces that don't require journalistic rigor."[18] In another segment Moriarty interviewed psychic Angela Dellafiora Ford, who claims that she "psychically tracked down fugitive drug smuggler Charlie Jordan in 1989." Nickell writes that Moriarty "simply takes Ford at her word" and "gushes" over her. Nickell states that Ford's claims are an example of "retrofitting" and incorrect.[19]
Center for Inquiry (CFI) editorKendrick Frazier wrote of his disappointment that CBS would air a pro-paranormal segment with Geller and a psychic detective. They also classifiedparapsychologistDean Radin as a scientist, which he is not. In a tweet the next day in response to criticism, Moriarty wrote, "We reported on government experiments with the paranormal – supported by declassified Govt documents. We gave time to both those involved and scientists." Frazier responded, "Just because some part of the government initiated a bizarre little research program at some point in the past, that is not itself a validation of the claims it was studying." Further research by CFI timed the segment and "found it more than 97 percent pro-paranormal and only 3 percent skeptical".[20] In a press release, CFI called theSunday Morning segment a "regrettable lapse ... in the ... usually objective and reliable coverage." and called on the program to "take steps to correct the record" and to "provide a more truthful and scientifically rigorous view of this topic."[21]
The program won its firstDaytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Morning Program in2013, beating outToday andGood Morning America in the category. It also won aPeabody Award in 2007 for the feature segment "The Way Home."[22]
The program's special food-themed edition on November 24, 2013, earnedSunday Morning one of its highest ratings since February 4, 1996, watched by over 6.25 million total viewers.[23]
This was surpassed by the January 18, 2015, broadcast, which had a total viewership of 6.79 million viewers, the second largest audience the program earned since January 23, 1994.[24]
March 1, 2015: 6.63 million viewers (sixth-largest audience since the 1987 advent of people meters).[25]
March 22, 2020: 6.82 million viewers (largest audience since 1994).[26]
"CBS Sunday Morning" [...] appeared to be pre-taped, as its [sic] normally is[...] It appears that the network tapes a clip of Pauley on set saying the first part of the sentence, perhaps taped ahead of time in the event of just such breaking news, but then dubbed in the specifics via the rest of the audio
