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''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (normally shortened to ''Sunday Morning'' on the program itself since 2009) is an American
news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or n ...
television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
that has aired on CBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and original host Charles Kuralt, the 90-minute program currently airs Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Eastern, and from 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. Pacific. Since October 9, 2016, the show has been hosted by
Jane Pauley Margaret Jane Pauley (born October 31, 1950) is an American television host, and author, active in news reporting since 1972. Pauley first became widely known as Barbara Walters's successor on the NBC morning show ''Today'', beginning at the ag ...
, who also hosts news segments, after the retirement of Charles Osgood. Osgood was the host for twenty-two years (and is the program's longest-serving host), taking over from Kuralt on April 10, 1994.


History

The program was originally conceived to be a broadcast version of a Sunday newspaper magazine supplement, most typified by the Sunday '' New York Times Magazine''. The format was conceived as the Sunday equivalent of the '' CBS Morning News'', which following ''Sunday Morning''s debut was retitled to reflect each day of the week (such as ''Monday Morning'', ''Tuesday Morning'', etc.). Although an attempt to apply the same format to weekday broadcasts proved unsuccessful, the Sunday survived and retains its original format. Long after the daily editions ended, the Sunday edition's opening sequence continued to display all seven days of the week until the early 2000s. On January 25, 2004, ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' celebrated its 25th anniversary with clips and highlights from the show's first quarter-century on the air. Host Charles Osgood showed clips from former host Charles Kuralt. The February 1, 2009, broadcast celebrated ''Sunday Morning''s 30th anniversary. Segments examined how the world has changed in the three decades since the program began, the history of Sundays in America 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. CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman periodically revisits some of Charles Kuralt's memorable personal profiles. On May 17, 2009, ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' began broadcasting in high-definition. In 2014, rebroadcasts of the program began airing on sister cable network Smithsonian Channel (owned by CBS's parent company ViacomCBS), but has since been pulled from that channel's programming.


Charles Kuralt era (1979–1994)

On January 28, 1979, CBS launched ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' with Charles Kuralt as host. On October 27, 1980, he was added as host of the weekday broadcasts of CBS' '' Morning'' show as well, joined with Diane Sawyer as weekday co-host on September 28, 1981. Kuralt left the weekday broadcasts in March 1982, but continued to anchor the Sunday morning program until April 3, 1994, when he retired after 15 years as host and was succeeded by Charles Osgood.


Charles Osgood era (1994–2016)

Osgood's first broadcast as host was on April 10, 1994. Ultimately, his tenure of twenty-two years as host exceeded Kuralt's fifteen years. Osgood's final broadcast as host was on September 25, 2016. Among his personal trademarks were his bow-tie, his weekly TV signoff "Until then, I'll see you on the radio", and his propensity for delivering his commentaries in whimsical verse. Example: When the Census Bureau invented a designation for cohabitant(s) as "Person(s) of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters", or "
POSSLQ POSSLQ ( , plural POSSLQs) is an abbreviation (or acronym) for "Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters", a term coined in the late 1970s by the United States Census Bureau as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of co ...
", 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: :"There's nothing that I wouldn't do :If you would be my POSSLQ." Osgood regularly pronounced the 21st-century years 2001, 2002, etc., as "twenty oh one, twenty oh two..." as opposed to the more common "two thousand one, two thousand two", etc.


Jane Pauley era (2016–present)

In 2014, Pauley appeared as an interview subject on the ''CBS Sunday Morning''; positive audience response to this segment led to Pauley being hired as a contributor to the show later in 2014. She was elevated to the role of the program's host in 2016, succeeding Charles Osgood, once again making her the anchor of a regular morning news program for the first time in over 25 years and becoming her first job as the host of any television program since 2005; she continues in this role as of 2022. It was announced on September 25, 2016, that Pauley would take over as host of ''CBS Sunday Morning'' following the retirement of Charles Osgood. "We first got to know Jane when we did a story about her on ''Sunday Morning,''" said Rand Morrison, the show's executive producer, in a statement. "Our viewers immediately responded by suggesting she belonged on ''Sunday Morning'' permanently. And – as is so often the case, they were right. She's a dedicated, experienced broadcast journalist. But – every bit as important – she's a delight to work with. A worthy successor – and a perfect fit." Pauley began her role as host on October 9, 2016, nearly 40 years to the day since her debut on '' Today''.


Relationships with CBS' weekday morning news programs

As noted, for the first few years of ''Sunday Mornings run, CBS News' weekday morning broadcasts were similarly branded ''Monday Morning'' through ''Friday Morning'' respectively, and were produced on the same set. However, these broadcasts emphasized hard news as opposed to ''Sunday Morning''s focus on feature stories. Originally anchored by
Bob Schieffer Bob Lloyd Schieffer (born February 25, 1937) is an American television journalist. He is known for his moderation of presidential debates, where he has been praised for his capability. Schieffer is one of the few journalists to have covered all f ...
, Kuralt eventually took over the daily role, and was for a short time joined by Diane Sawyer as co-host. However, the weekday program's then-limited 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. Eastern air time (the long-running '' Captain Kangaroo'' was entrenched in the 8:00 a.m. hour) hampered its ability to compete with NBC and ABC's rival two-hour morning shows '' Today'' and ''
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...
'', though it expanded to 90 minutes (from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time) in 1981 and was renamed simply ''Morning''. In 1982, the weekday version was extended to two hours (7:00 to 9:00 a.m.), and reverted to its previous title as the ''CBS Morning News'', adopting a different set and distinct graphics in the process; by March, Kuralt had been replaced by Bill Kurtis. Meanwhile, ''Sunday Morning'' maintained its format and set with Kuralt as host. For almost all of the next four decades, ''Sunday Morning'' and CBS' other morning news programs, under varying names and formats, 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 as '' CBS Mornings'', and its Saturday counterpart as '' CBS Saturday Morning''. Under this latest reformatting, both programs have taken on some branding elements of the Sunday program like its Sun of May-style logo and " Abblasen" fanfare, though in a much more modern studio layout. To date, ''Sunday Morning'' itself has not been affected by these changes, apart from some minor graphics updates to accommodate a revised CBS bug, which took effect on the September 12 edition.


Format

Each edition follows a story totem pole in the center of the CBS
soundstage A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...
, 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 Pauley's introductions. Music in the show is usually limited to the opening and closing title theme. Pauley introduces each story with a short monologue, then sends the show out to the taped segment. The show usually ends with a preview of next week's ''Sunday Morning'' broadcast. After the commercial break, there is a 30-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's '' Face the Nation'' (which follows the program on most CBS stations) near the end of the program. During the occasional weeks that ''Sunday Morning'' aired a pre-taped theme broadcast, the headlines segment would instead be presented live by another anchor. By early 2022, observers noted that ''Sunday 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. Notably, ''Sunday Morning'' includes significant coverage of the fine and
performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfo ...
, including coverage of topics usually not covered in network news, such as
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
,
painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...
,
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...
,
opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
and
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...
, 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, actor
Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...
was asked about his love of architecture, and Grant Hill about his painting collection). Television essays similar to the kinds delivered on PBS also appear, and the program generally has a stable of equally positive and negative news stories to fill up the program when there is no
breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
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 than ''CBS Mornings'' and ''CBS Saturday Morning'', even after those programs began sharing some of ''Sunday Morning''s branding elements. Commentators
Ben Stein Benjamin Jeremy Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American writer, lawyer, actor, comedian, and commentator on political and economic issues. He began his career as a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before ente ...
and Nancy Giles appear in recurring segments, delivering their opinion, and correspondent
Bill Geist William Geist is an American retired author, columnist, and television journalist. Early life Geist was born on May 10, 1945 in Champaign, Illinois. He served in the United States Army as a combat photographer with the 1st Infantry Division ...
also contributes human interest stories. 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 to senior citizens, ''Sunday Morning'' actually placed first in its time slot in the key demographic of adults 25–54, beating all of the political discussion-driven Sunday morning talk shows. On one occasion, the entire program served as a showcase for
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...
; this took place in April 1986, when a live broadcast of Vladimir Horowitz's historic
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
piano recital was aired. For that presentation only, the program departed from its usual newsmagazine format and devoted the entire 90 minutes to a complete presentation of the recital. Because the recital was given at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time, CBS was able to broadcast it at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The presentation was such a critical and popular success that it was repeated two months later, and was subsequently released on VHS and DVD.


Segments

* Cover Story: The main topic of that week's broadcast * Almanac: A notable event or the birth or death of a person that happened on the same calendar day of the weekly broadcast * Profile: A look at the accomplishments of people * Pulse: A look at facts by different sources * Passage: A person who died within the past week * Calendar: A look at the week ahead * Moment of Nature: A look at animals and plants at the end of the weekly broadcast


Production

The program is marked by its distinctive "Sun" logo, which is prominent in the program's
title sequence A title sequence (also called an opening sequence or intro) is the method by which films or television programmes present their title and key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often a opening theme song with vi ...
. In addition, in between some segments, images of the sun in various forms also appear. The show's theme is the
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
fanfare " Abblasen", attributed to Gottfried Reiche. A recording of the piece on a baroque trumpet by Don Smithers was used as the show's theme for many years, until producers decided to replace the vinyl recording with a
digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals ** Digital camera, which captures and stores digital ...
of a piccolo trumpet by Doc Severinsen; the current version is played by Wynton Marsalis.


Notable on-air staff


Host

*
Jane Pauley Margaret Jane Pauley (born October 31, 1950) is an American television host, and author, active in news reporting since 1972. Pauley first became widely known as Barbara Walters's successor on the NBC morning show ''Today'', beginning at the ag ...
(2016–present)


Correspondents

*
Serena Altschul Serena Altschul (born October 13, 1970) is an American broadcast journalist, known for her work at MTV News and CBS. Early life and education Altschul was born in New York City, a daughter of author and botanist Siri von Reis and Arthur Altsc ...
* Rita Braver *
Lee Cowan Leland P. Cowan is a CBS News National Correspondent for the CBS Evening News and a substitute anchor for CBS Sunday Morning. Biography Cowan was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, a son of Leland B. Cowan, a surgical and radiation oncologist, and Co ...
* Mo Rocca * Tracy Smith * Martha Teichner


Contributors

* Luke Burbank * David Edelstein – film and television critic *
Bill Flanagan Bill Flanagan (born January 14, 1955) is an American author, television executive and radio host. He was born in Rhode Island and graduated from Brown University in 1977. His books include ''Written in My Soul'' (1986), ''Last of the Moe Haircu ...
– rock music critic * Jim Gaffigan – commentator * Nancy Giles – commentator *
Steve Hartman Stephen Robert Hartman (born April 14, 1963) is an American broadcast journalist. Hartman earned a degree in broadcast journalism at Bowling Green State University, graduating in 1985. Hartman lives with his wife, Andrea, and their three chil ...
*
Hua Hsu Hua Hsu (born 1977) is an American writer and academic, based in New York City. He is a professor of English at Bard College and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker''. His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as ...
*
Conor Knighton Conor Knighton (born February 1, 1981) is an American actor, television host, host, and television producer. He is currently a correspondent for ''CBS Sunday Morning''. In 2016, Knighton launched "On The Trail," a year-long, cross-country look a ...
* Ted Koppel * Ben Mankiewicz * Erin Moriarty * David Pogue * Mo Rocca * Faith Salie – commentator * Kelefa Sanneh *
Joel Sartore Joel Sartore is an American photographer focusing on conservation photography, speaker, author, teacher, and a long-time contributor to ''National Geographic'' magazine. He is the head of The National Geographic ''Photo Ark'' project, a 25-yea ...
* Susan Spencer *
Ben Stein Benjamin Jeremy Stein (born November 25, 1944) is an American writer, lawyer, actor, comedian, and commentator on political and economic issues. He began his career as a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before ente ...
– commentator * Mark Whitaker


Notable former on-air staff


Hosts

* Charles Kuralt (1979–1994; now deceased) * Charles Osgood (1994–2016; now retired)


Correspondents

*
Faith Daniels Faith Daniels (born March 9, 1957) is an American television news anchor, reporter, and talk show host. Early life Daniels was born to an unwed mother and lived eight months in a Catholic orphanage before being adopted by Steven A. Skowronski, a ...
(1988–1989) *
Bill Geist William Geist is an American retired author, columnist, and television journalist. Early life Geist was born on May 10, 1945 in Champaign, Illinois. He served in the United States Army as a combat photographer with the 1st Infantry Division ...
(1987–2018; now retired) * John Leonard – film, book and drama critic (1988–2004; now deceased) * Russ Mitchell – now at
WKYC WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's lon ...
in
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
*
Ron Powers Ron Powers (born November 18, 1941) is an American journalist, novelist, and non-fiction writer. His works include ''No One Cares About Crazy People: My Family and the Heartbreak of Mental Illness in America''; ''White Town Drowsing: Journeys to Ha ...
– film, book and drama critic (1979–1988) * Terence Smith – senior correspondent (1990–1998) * Billy Taylor – jazz and modern music correspondent (1981–2002; now deceased) * Roger Welsch – Postcards from Nebraska (1988–2001; now deceased) * Tim Sample – Postcards from Maine (1993–2004) *
Eugenia Zukerman Eugenia Rich Zukerman (born September 25, 1944, Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an American flutist, writer, and journalist. An internationally renowned flute virtuoso, Zukerman has been performing with major orchestras and at major music festivals i ...
– classical music correspondent (1980–2019)


Controversy

Neurologist Steven Novella and paranormal investigator Joe Nickell wrote in separate '' Skeptical Inquirer'' articles about Erin Moriarty's lack of skepticism and "complete journalistic fail" over her segment on CBS ''Sunday Morning'' in March 2018. In her segment she showed clips of spoon-bender Uri Geller from the 1980s performing "'psychic parlor tricks'" but instead of explaining to her audience that Geller had been debunked many times she instead said he was "'unreliable,’" with no mention of the work of
James Randi James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010 ...
. Novella states of Moriarty "She is (most likely) just an old-school journalist who thinks of paranormal pieces as '"fluff"' pieces that don't require journalistic rigor.” And that this segment could have run "thirty years ago with no change.” 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. Center for Inquiry editor Kendrick Frazier wrote of his disappointment that the network of Murrow and Cronkite would air a pro-paranormal segment with Geller and a psychic detective. They also featured parapsychologist Dean Radin calling him 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 that "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". In a press release, CFI called the CBS ''Sunday Morning'' segment a "regrettable lapse ... in the ... usually objective and reliable coverage.” They called on the show to "take steps to correct the record" and to "provide a more truthful and scientifically rigorous view of this topic.”


Awards and nominations

The program won its first
Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Morning Program The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Morning Program had been awarded every year between 2007 and 2021. Beginning in 2020, the category name was changed from Outstanding Morning Program to Outstanding Morning Show. In December 2021, it was ann ...
in
2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
, beating out ''Today'' and ''Good Morning America'' in the category. It also won a
Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
in 2007 for the feature segment "The Way Home."


Nielsen ratings

The program's special food-themed edition on November 24, 2013, earned ''Sunday Morning'' one of its highest ratings since February 4, 1996, watched by over 6.25 million total viewers. 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. March 1, 2015: 6.63 million viewers (sixth-largest audience since the 1987 advent of people meters). March 22, 2020: 6.82 million viewers (largest audience since 1994).


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cbs News Sunday Morning CBS original programming 1979 American television series debuts 1970s American television news shows 1980s American television news shows 1990s American television news shows 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows 2020s American television news shows Sunday Morning Peabody Award-winning television programs Television series by CBS Studios English-language television shows Sunday mass media