Corrections & clarifications: This story has been updated to reflect the most recent Nielsen numbers.
The “CBS This Morning” team has taken one eye-opening trip around the sun.
Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary for its line-up of co-hosts Gayle King, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil. King has been with the morning show since its 2012 revamp, but her counterparts replaced Norah O’Donnell, who now anchors the “CBS Evening News,” and John Dickerson, correspondent for “60 Minutes.”
The milestone came as a surprise to King, she tells USA TODAY.
“When they pointed that out to me I went, ‘You’re kidding! All of that has happened in a year? In some ways, it feels like we just started. In other ways, it seems like we’ve been doing this for a very long time.”
King sees the lineup as “a really good mix. You’ve got three different personalities that each bring something different to the table,” she says. “But we all actually like each other. We’re all really having a good time. I’m really excited with how the show is going.”
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Diana Miller, executive producer of the morning program since April 2019, also recognizes her team’s individual talents.
“Gayle can interview somebody like they’re her best friend, or make you feel like you’re family, even if it’s the first time she’s meeting somebody,” Miller says. She compliments Mason’s “way with words that he’s really utilizing in a profound way” for his series “Lives to Remember,” memorializing those who have died from COVID-19. She applauds Dokoupil’s “passion for information” and his investigative skills.
Miller attributes the trio’s “shared passion for news” for its ability to gel. “They’re three incredible journalists, who all have unique and varied backgrounds and interests, but they come together with a curiosity and a kindness that is what I think you see on the air.”
Susan Zirinsky, president and senior executive producer of CBS News, describes the three as “a force of nature” in a statement emailed to USA TODAY.
“They have the facts, the science, and the compassion viewers trust,” she says. “They hold people accountable who cross the line; and they celebrate those who lift up our spirits and inspire us all.”
Despite these positives, however, “CBS This Morning” remains a distant third in the Nielsen ratings behind ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today,” at an average of 3 million viewers, less than a million fewer than the rivals.
“Ratings are always key a point that everyone looks at, but for us we really use the feedback we get from viewers,” she says. “And then, frankly, it’s seeing impact from the stories that we do,” she adds. “That, to me, is the best success you can have when you know the stories you’re telling are reaching people and making a difference.”
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King thinks it’s interesting that the current “CBS This Morning” line-up hasn’t spurred feud rumors, as O’Donnell did.
“It is kinda funny. No one’s talking about issues that Gayle, Anthony and Tony are having,” she says. “They only do that to women! I don’t know why you just can’t embrace us and celebrate us up because that’s how most of us feel about each other.”
King dismisses rumored conflict with her former co-anchor, writing it off as “stupid with two Os” and says the two “never had problems with each other.”
“I would say that Norah is one of my biggest cheerleaders, as I am hers,” she says. Even now, King says she “always” catches O’Donnell’s nightly news broadcast and sends her congratulatory notes. “If I see something that I really like, I send her something.”
King, who has been broadcasting “CBS This Morning” from a makeshift studio in her family room, says the timetable for a return to the show’s set is up in the air.
“As much as I want to get back in the studio, and I do,” she says, “I’m not pushing it at the expense of safety. That matters to me more than anything.”
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