Paramount Global’s CBS has officially announced an expansion hour for its flagship breakfast program, “CBS Mornings.”
Starting later this month, CBS stations in five major metropolitan areas will debut a third hour of CBS Mornings, called “CBS Mornings Plus,” hosted by Tony Dokoupil and Adriana Diaz.
The broadcast stations that will offer CBS Morning Plus are in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit and Miami. In four of the five markets, Paramount owns two stations — one offering CBS, and another that is affiliated with the CW Network or otherwise independent. It wasn’t clear from the announcement if CBS Mornings Plus will air on the secondary stations owned by Paramount or the main CBS station in each market.
In addition to the five markets, CBS Mornings Plus will stream on CBS News 24/7, the free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) news channel launched by CBS News nearly a decade ago.
“CBS Mornings Plus is a great example of how our broadcast and beyond strategy is leveraging the strengths of our most important brands to grow the audience and position CBS News and Stations for the future,” Wendy McMahon, the President and CEO of CBS News and Stations, said in a statement. “At the same time, it highlights our commitment to delivering best-in-class journalism on every platform. We are building on the momentum of CBS Mornings and giving audiences more of the signature storytelling and differentiated reporting that they have come to expect from CBS News in the mornings.”
“This expansion of CBS Mornings shows a commitment to the brand, and I’m excited to see what this team can do with another hour of real estate to experiment with,” said Shawna Thomas, the Executive Producer of CBS Mornings and CBS Mornings Plus. “People say all the time they wish we had another hour. Now it’s time for us to do something smart with the time that the audience will appreciate.”
The addition of a third national morning news hour was first mentioned in a memo to CBS News employees last month. It comes amid similar expansion efforts at peer broadcasters ABC and NBC, which have increased their offerings of morning and daytime news across their broadcast networks and FAST channels.
