TVSquad

I don't usually watch the morning shows. If I'm watching TV at that hour, I instinctively go to NBC's Today Show because that's what I have watched over the years. Diane Sawyer kinda bugs me so I don't usually watch Good Morning America, and The Early Show has never had anything that really made me think, "hey, I gotta watch that."

Now comes word via The New York Post that a lot of people just aren't happy at the CBS morning program ever since executive producer Shelley Ross took over last September. In fact, 21 staff members have left the show since she took over. I haven't seen turnover like this since that Paris Hilton sex tape.*

In an interview with TV Newser when she took over, Ross talked about the changes that were going to come to the show and made a point to say that she's not hard to get along with as a boss and that "people enjoy working with me. They walk out of my office and say, 'Oh my God, she was so helpful, so nice, and her notes were great on my script.'"

Hmmm...they actually say "oh my God, she was so helpful?"

* Thank you, I'm here all week!

Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts will return to the ABC show on Monday.

Roberts underwent surgery last week after discovering she had breast cancer. The surgery went well and Roberts is now awaiting test results to figure out what her next step should be. ABC spokesperson Bridgett Maney says that Roberts is feeling great and is looking forward to getting back to work.

Roberts will be returning at an interesting time, as the newest Nielsen numbers indicate that the ratings for the 18-49 demographic are down 10% for all morning shows (GMA, Today, and The Early Show) compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile, the cable news morning shows have seen increased ratings.

That's the opinion of New York Post columnist Cindy Adams.

Besides the hype and media attention and marketing mistakes made by CBS, Adams thinks that it's Couric's voice is turning off viewers. That regular network news viewers want the stronger, deeper voice of a male anchor like Charles Gibson or Brian Williams.

I reported on the Daytime Emmy Award nominations yesterday and noted that Live with Regis & Kelly wasn't nominated in the Best Talk Show category. While that's technically true, the show was nominated in another category for morning shows. They'll go up against The Today Show, Good Morning, America and Univision's Despierta America in a new category. Regis still wasn't nominated for Best Host though.

Oh, and Regis is doing quite fine after heart bypass surgery yesterday. Kelly Ripa announced the news on the show this morning. One of his doctors said that Reege has "the heart of a 19 year-old." It wasn't clear which 19 year-old this was, but hopefully they will give it back to this person so they can also live a long, healthy life.

That's the theory pushed by veteran TV critic Tom Shales in this piece over at TV Week. The numbers for the Today Show are declining, and Shales thinks that the reasons are twofold. One, viewers haven't warmed up to Meredith Vieira since she took over for Katie Couric. And two, he actually thinks that Matt Lauer is trying to sabotage her work:

If viewers haven't hugely warmed up to Vieira, then part of the reason may be misbehavior by her hammy co-host. Repeatedly and perhaps vindictively, Matt has seemed intent on tripping Vieira up on the air-interrupting, hogging the spotlight, cold-shouldering her, subtly putting her down. Matt perhaps doesn't want to be outshone by a woman once again.

I don't watch the show as much as I used to so I have no idea if this is true or not. Readers?

Shales also doesn't have kind words for the pairing of Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts over at Good Morning America.

[via TV Newser]

To follow up on Keith's review of Meredith Vieira's first day on The Today Show, Gawker has the two minute video montage that the show ran at the very end of the first day.

WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS THAT DAMN "IT'S A NEW DAY!" SONG THEY'VE BEEN PLAYING IN PROMOS.

You see Meredith being introduced by Matt Lauer, you see her high-fiving the crowd outside, you see her flub one of her lines and get laughed at by Matt and the crew. There's even a giant banner welcoming her to the show. I think the banner reads "Katie Who?" The part where she throws her hat up in the air like Mary Tyler Moore is cool though.

Oh, and you get to see the new set too. My God, what is going on there? The couch set...it doesn't look like the set for a national network morning program, it looks like the set for Wake Up Sacramento or something. Or maybe one of those Lifetime shows where women sit around and talk about relationships and tampons.

That's the buzz from "insiders" at CBS News. FOX News is reporting that CNN's Anderson Cooper could become the new host of the morning show, along with NBC's Campbell Brown, who is unhappy that she didn't get the Today gig when Katie Couric went to host The CBS Evening News.

It's not such a crazy idea, since Cooper is already working on 60 Minutes. But what would happen to Anderson Cooper 360? He'd have to give that up. Maybe Harry Smith can take that job if Cooper goes to CBS. Nah, Harry Smith 360 just doesn't have the same ring to it.

What do you think? I think Anderson Cooper is good, but would he want to give up the harder news that he does at CNN to host a morning show again, especially after early morning gigs on World News Tonight and American Morning? I'm not convinced, though I think it would finally give CBS' morning program the personality it needs.

You know what I mean. You're watching some national TV show, usually a morning show, and the national anchor or weatherperson, maybe Al Roker, will say something like, "that's the national weather, now here's the weather in your area," and they'll switch to the local weatherperson who says, "thanks Al! Yeah, it's gonna be cold today..."

Why do they do this? Do they think that TV viewers are idiots? That we think, "gee, everyone on TV is in the same place and knows each other! And they all live in my box in the living room!" Give me a break. I watch the syndicated Daily Buzz every morning (side note: I love you Andrea), and Mitch gives the national weather forecast, and then throws it to local affiliates, and Rich, the guy in Boston, always says, "thanks Mitch."

Rich, Mitch probably has no idea who you are, so can you stop thanking him? Thanks. Now I take you back to Katie Couric in New York...Katie?