CBS tries (carefully) a third morning-show hour

CBS is taking its first, hesitant steps toward having a longer morning show.
On Sept. 30, “CBS Mornings Plus” will debut at 9 a.m. ET. Tony Dokoupil, one of the “CBS Mornings” hosts, will stick around for the third hour, joined by Adriana Diaz. (They’re shown here.)
But the network says the show will only be on a few stations it owns – in Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Miami and San Francisco – plus the streaming service, CBS News 24/7. Presumably, it could expand to others.
For decades, the networks were content with a two-hour morning show, from 7-9 a.m. weekdays. That made 9 a.m. a fertile time for local talk shows.
Then times changed. The top local shows – Phil Donahue in Dayton, Oprah Winfrey in Chicago — were syndicated nationally, sometimes moving to the afternoon; many others disappeared. Network changes included:
— NBC added a third hour and then a fourth. “Today” now runs from 7-11 a.m. on many stations … which then have the rest of daytime to themselves. The last remaining NBC soap, “Days of Our Lives,” is confined to Peacock.
— ABC added a third hour of “Good Morning America,” but doesn’t air it at 9, a time when many of its stations have the ABC-produced “Live With Kelly and Mark.” Instead, “GMA3” airs at 1 p.m., ahead of the “General Hospital” soap. ABC also has a newscast from 4-7 a.m. and “The View” at 11.
— Fox avoids daytime. Many of its stations air syndicated talk or game shows or have a barrage of court shows; some keep alive the custom of a local morning talk show.
— CBS will now fill much of the day: It will have a newscast from 5-7 a.m., CBS Mornings” and its extension from 7-10 a.m., “Let’s Make a Deal” at 10 and “The Price is Right at 11.” After leaving time for local noon newscasts, it has two soaps – “The Young and the Restless” at 12:30 a.m., “The Bold and the Beautiful” at 1:30, followed by “The Talk” at 2.
However, it’s doing that carefully. Its New York station, for instance, has Drew Barrymore’s show (produced by CBS) at 9 a.m.; the Los Angeles one has Barrymore in the afternoon, leaving room for “CBS Mornings Plus.”