Channel 4 Breakfast News

Yes, but that's an edited montage, not the real time programme ! Ever seen a cinema trailer !

Very difficult to assume by a montage obviously, but appeared to be similar to Breakfast with a heavier news agenda for the bulk of the show, with a lighter end.

However Breakfast is even dumbed down, going by the biz bulletins which are consumerist in nature, which reflects the type of audience who are actually able to watch breakfast tv in the UK.

I was in the states for almost three weeks, it was a holiday, and we were there to sample the many things that are genuinely good about the country. I (as all good TVF members would ) randomly sampled the TV channels, while Mrs Markymark faffed about for ages every morning in the bathroom. I honestly didn't detect any great difference between the news:fluff content of the NBC, ABC, and CBS shows.

What I did detect, was that the smaller the local affiliate's population coverage, the better their output was.
And one thing perhaps BBC and ITV could learn from that side of the Atlantic is the extensive use of information tickers from the local stations, over the network pictures

Well, much of CBS This Morning 's content is available on YouTube. You can judge its tone from these clips:

https://www.youtube.com/user/CBSThisMorning/videos

This is my experience as well. Many small market stations do a good job providing their communities relevant issue-oriented news, while many large-market stations fill their airtime with crime, fires, and the like.

It's a well edited montage then, because it gives a pretty good impression of the actual programme.

Essentially, the first hour is almost 100% hard news. Today and GMA will have had a fair bit of fluff by quarter past seven. Then, in the second hour CBS This Morning will lighten up a bit too - but I've found that even when they're discussing "non-news" topics, their discussions are far more in-depth and informed than their competitors. They've got Charlie Rose who is an incredibly seasoned journalist and interviewer (he also has a show on Bloomberg) who always knows what question to ask, Norah O'Donnell who I believe used to be a Washington correspondent for CBS and seems to know politics inside out. The two of them have both done 60 Minutes which is like the holy grail of hard news in the US. There's also Gayle King, who doesn't have the same hard news chops as the others - but I imagine she's always been there for the lighter side, to ask the question that Joe Public wants asking.
Their graphics etc are much more understated than Today and Good Morning Americas, meaning it can be taken seriously, although to be honest they've changed them a few times and they're becoming increasingly brash.

It's very much like comparing Breakfast to Good Morning Britain.

From what I've seen I'd rank CBS TM a good bit ahead of Today and GMA for news content.
But they like the rest of US news they are obsessed with domestic news and if there isn't much American involvement in an international story it's covered little.
GMA really has to be seen to believed. Showbiz news that even Richard Arnold would find beneath him. Though at least they seem to know they're tacky and tabloidy unlike the Today show team.

Last time I saw that they were doing Martyn Lewis style "deals" as their second item of the morning with the presenters treating the subject as if it was a nuclear deal with Russia. So stiff.

Small market stations do plenty of crime, too. It's just that there's less crime happening in those places, so more of those newscasts end up being filled with regional and national content pulled from news wires. Where local TV news shines (regardless of market size) is when major stories happen that have a big impact on the community. That shooting in Oregon last month? National and international media came in, rented every hotel room for miles, dusted off the script from the last shooting, filled in the blanks, and packed up for the next disaster 48 hours later. Local outlets are there for weeks to cover how the loss of nine people impacts everyone in a town of a few thousand and can hopefully connect deeper to law enforcement in order to give a community story the depth it deserves.



I'd say this is a pretty fair assessment. Charlie Rose is in many ways a Stephen Sackur of the US -- he's well-known for his minimalist interview program on PBS, and I think CBS wanted to send a clear signal that they were finally getting serious about their morning show when they signed him on. They also made a big point about having a nice, circular desk instead of the cliché morning couch, which makes the show feel more adult.

A good comparison for how the CBS handles "lighter" content differently: around 8:30 (90/120 minutes in) last week, ABC's GMA had all their anchors dressed in elaborate Halloween costumes in a fashion show of sorts in Times Square with screaming fans surrounding them. Meanwhile, CBS was having a roundtable interview with Jon Oliver.

Or fill in with lots of banter and live segments on crafts day at an elementary school.

Right, but some stations in small- or midsize markets also do a better job covering news of substance -- local politics, environmental concerns, education, the local economy, etc. -- than many large-market stations, which often have an "if it leads or bleeds" mentality or are "cookie cuttered" to death. I live in Chicago, where the situation isn't that bad, but some of the best local newscasts I've seen were from mid-sized college towns.

Starting this Monday, there has been a big shift in GMA's content. The 1st hour is now filled with hard news. While still fluff driven during the 2nd hour, there is definitely a noticeable change towards a hard news format.

I can't remember where I read this whether it was FTVLive, TVNewser or even Page Six but there have been some losses in terms of viewership of GMA. Some have gone back to Today while CBS This Morning is seeing the most growth. So they've been tweaking the show seeing what they can do to get people back.

I was watching a while back GMA and their top story was Dancing with the Stars - while the other were covering some other breaking news story.