Super Bowl Update

NBC News President Steve Capus announced Thursday that Erica Hill will be joining Weekend Today as co-anchor. The weekend anchor team of Lester Holt, Hill, Jenna Wolfe, and Dylan Dreyer officially debuts Saturday.

Hill, who briefly served as co-anchor of CBS This Morning, was replaced there earlier this year by Norah O'Donnell.  CBS reportedly tried to find a suitable niche for Hill but couldn't.

NBC had no such problem, Capus explained.
 

“Erica’s extraordinary track record as a journalist has proven that she can cover everything from hard news to pop culture with ease and professionalism,” he said.

Hill has been also been named an NBC News national correspondent. She will report on all platforms of NBC News including Today, NBC Nightly News and MSNBC. Hill will co-anchor both Saturday and Sunday editions of Weekend Today alongside Lester Holt. Holt has served as co-anchor of Weekend Today since 2003 and is the longest-running anchor of the broadcast.

Jenna Wolfe has been named news anchor of Weekend Today and will expand her role to both Saturday and Sunday editions. Wolfe has been with the morning broadcast since 2007. In addition, Wolfe will continue as Today correspondent, reporting feature stories for both the weekday and weekend broadcasts.

Meteorologist Dylan Dreyer was named weather anchor of Weekend Today upon joining NBC News in September. Dreyer will remain in that role, also providing weekend weather reports on MSNBC.

Prior to joining NBC News, Hill served as co-host of CBS News' CBS This Morning in 2012 and The Early Show in 2011. She was news anchor of The Early Show in 2010, while also co-hosting The Early Show Saturday from 2008 to 2010. Hill joined The Early Show Saturday while working at CNN, where she served as anchor and correspondent for CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 from 2008 to 2010.

Hill also spent seven years at CNN, joining the network at its Atlanta headquarters in 2003. She served in various roles at CNN and HLN. From 2006 to 2008, she was the anchor of HLN's Prime News with Erica Hill, a live two-hour news and interview program. She co-anchored Prime News Tonight from 2005 to 2006, and served as national correspondent for CNN Newsource in Washington in 2004.

CBS News' chief White House correspondent, Norah O’Donnell, has been named co-host of CBS This Morning, it was announced by CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and president David Rhodes. O’Donnell will join co-hosts Charlie Rose and Gayle King beginning this fall.

“This is a very exciting development for our morning program and for all of CBS News,” Fager said. “Norah is an accomplished reporter with all the skills for the job. She’s a hard worker who knows her story and, as she has shown time after time at the White House, she can think on her feet on live television.”

“Norah thrives on the kind of original reporting and newsmaker interviews that are the hallmark of CBS News and CBS This Morning,” said Rhodes. “She is the perfect addition to the best morning news program on television.”

“Norah has earned the respect of global newsmakers as a tough but fair reporter,” said Chris Licht, VP of programming for CBS News and executive producer of CBS This Morning.  “Adding her to the team is part of our ongoing process of improving and building on the solid foundation that already exists at CBS This Morning.”

Erica Hill, who served as a co-host of CBS This Morning and helped with its successful launch, is in discussions regarding a new role.  
 

O’Donnell has been CBS News’ Chief White House Correspondent since June 2011. She will leave the White House to assume her new role. O’Donnell will continue as the principal substitute anchor for Face the Nation and will continue to report for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.

Before joining CBS News, O’Donnell was the chief Washington correspondent for MSNBC and a contributing correspondent for NBC’s Today. She joined NBC News in 1999. Earlier in her career, O’Donnell was a staff reporter for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.

With all of the fuss surrounding the tight morning TV race between ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today, it can be easy to forget that there's a third choice.

But CBS This Morning has taken full advantage of the opportunity to grow its viewer base.  By not falling for the usual hype, it's found a smaller but increasing group of people who want something different.

Evidence of that can be found in the ratings for last week:  Compared to last year, CBS This Morning was up 13% in household viewership, 11% in total viewers, and up a whopping 33% among adults ages 25 to 54, an all-important key metric.  Even better, women seem to be finding a lot to like.  Among women ages 18 to 49, CBS has grown its share by 40%.

Both ABC and NBC, on the other hand, are barely gaining or even shedding viewers in the morning.  NBC's Today, compared to a year ago, is down 14% in households, down 15% in total viewers, and off 24% in the 25-54 age group.  GMA showed small gains - up 3% in households and 8% in the 25-54 group, but flat elsewhere.

And it's not just in the morning where CBS is seeing improvement.

Scott Pelley's CBS Evening News is also gaining viewers - and respect - for its classic, hard-news-first style.  Last week, the third-place newscast was up 5% among households, 4% in total viewers, and 8% among adults ages 25 to 54.

No, those aren't huge gains, but they are better than what its competitors are seeing.  NBC's Evening News with Brian Williams likewise saw an uptick in households (6%) and total viewers (2%), but lost 6% of its 25-54 audience.  ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer grew just 2% in households and 1% in total viewers, but was flat among 25-54 year olds.

And it doesn't stop there.  For the year to date, the CBS Evening News is the only one of the three showing increases in key viewership metrics.  Where it's up - households, total viewers, adults 25-54 - the others are well off the pace.

CBS has narrowed the gap by being different, and that difference is helping.  There is still a way to go before the network can truly say it's returned to its rightful place among the Big Three, but if the current trends continue, that which was once thought impossible could very well come to pass.