Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a former co-host of ABC’s “The View” and “Fox & Friends” will serve as a guest host next week on “CBS Mornings,” according to a person familiar with the matter, part of what is expected to be a series of try-outs as CBS News worked to overhaul a program that has fallen further behind its competitors in the ratings.
She is expected to appear Monday through Wednesday of next week, according to two people familiar with the matter. Hasselbeck will not appear during segments tied to hard news or politics, these people say, and will likely turn up later in the program during “Talk of the Table” segments and discussionsof parenting, pop culture and entertainment. Other guest hosts are likely to appear over the course of the summer, these people say, including “Inside Edition” host Eva Pilgrim. Norah O’Donnell will appear on “CS Mornings” throughout the program on Wednesday’s telecast.
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment. Hasselbeck’s coming guest appearances were previously reported by The Guardian on social media.
Hasselbeck might make for a different kind of host for the CBS News morning program, which in recent years has tried to carve out space for itself by avoiding some of the frillier elements of A.M. TV and playing up deeper features and longer conversations about the issues of the day. That format has been eroding for some time now, and the show’s future had been assigned recently to Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News and a former top producer at ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” which embraces more segments tied to lifestyle and pop culture.
“CBS Mornings” has relied on two hosts, Gayle King and Nate Burleson, since the third member of their on-air team was named anchor of “CBS Evening News” and took up those duties earlier this year.
“CBS Mornings” has been shedding viewers in recent months. The morning program had an average audience of about 1.69 million for the five days ended June 5, according to Nielsen. In contract, NBC’s “Today” enjoyed an audience of nearly 2.98 million viewers and “GMA” captured an average of 2.7 million.
More concerning, perhaps, the audience for “CBS Mornings” among viewers between 25 and 54 — the demographic most appealing to advertisers in news programming, stood at just 285,000 for the period, compared with 640,000 for “Today” and 470,000 for “GMA.”
Hasselbeck, who first gained gained traction as a reality-show contestant on “Survivor,” has no formal journalism background, but in these days, that is no longer a prerequisite for morning TV. Burleson is a former NFL player and also has sportscasting duties with CBS. Jenna Bush Hager, who has become a more prominent member of the team at NBC’s “Today,” started out as a teacher before moving into exploring broadcasting.
Hasselbeck has also expressed conservative views on air about issues such as abortion, and her presence on air at CBS would mark a noticeable difference from many of the other hosts, who typically take care to keep their own thoughts on issues and stories off the program. Her appearance at CBS News comes as its editor in chief, Bari Weiss, has sought to correct what she has perceived as a bias at the Paramount Skydance news division that she feels has undermined public trust in mainstream journalism.