THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130047
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
HOW DO YOU like the new, schizophrenic ``CBS This Morning''?
One minute it's a dead serious, all-business news program with Dan Rather in a trenchcoat reporting from wintry Tuzla in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The next minute, it's Paula Zahn swaying to the Latin beat of Cuban singer Albita before an audience at the Fountainbleau Hilton in 70-degree Miami.
Now you see correspondent Bob Simon in shot-up Sarajevo. Grim.
Now you see weather reporter Mark McEwen munching crabs in Florida. Funny.
What kind of a crazy format is this? Only a network in a deep ratings funk would try something as off the wall as bringing in a studio audience at 7 a.m. to applaud when newsies Zahn and co-anchor Harry Smith show up on camera. Smith doesn't need this. He's fine being plain ol' Harry Smith, a talent whom CBS doesn't fully appreciate.
The audience-in-the-studio format kicked in about three months ago. As part of the new deal, ``CBS This Morning'' most days gives over the 8-to-9 a.m. hour to a single topic or guest.
I liked the old ``CBS This Morning'' better, when Zahn and Smith didn't come across as two people breaking in a Vegas lounge act.
Zahn, who thinks the new format is great, said: ``In the past, when we did the show in the sanitized atmosphere of an empty studio, you never knew how people were reacting to what we were doing.
``Now we have instant gratification from the people in the studio. Or instant insult. We're enjoying it tremendously. It's nice to have a hundred warm bodies in the studio at that time of the morning.''
Home base is West 57th Street in Manhattan, but ``CBS This Morning'' has been on the road a lot of late, visiting Texas and Florida.
Tonight at 10 on CBS, Zahn pops up in primetime as the host of ``People Yearbook '95,'' the first but hardly the last show on TV this month to remind us what a good or bad year it's been, depending on your perspective.
Zahn is strictly window dressing, hired to sit on camera with her long legs crossed, introducing segments reported on by the People staff, including the, ugh, Editor Talk moment.
If CBS wants to show us that Zahn has more going for her than Joan Lunden and Katie Couric, her competition in the a.m., why not give her something to do on ``People Yearbook '95''? Wouldn't this be the place to slip in a bit of Zahn playing the cello, which she does quite well?
(Zahn in a phone interview dropped a hint that she would love to appear with the Virginia Symphony in Norfolk).
At first blush, ``People Yearbook '95'' appears to be an hour of fluff, with such cotton-candy insight as the fact Bugs Bunny is considered by People readers to be more of a sex symbol than House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
But dig deeper in the ``Yearbook'' show and you'll find a nice piece on the families of the 169 people who died in the Oklahoma City bombing. How quickly we've forgotten that story. The People reporters remind viewers of what life is like for those who lived through the explosion after being severely injured, including 4-year-old Brandon Denny.
I also liked the conversations with Mary Tyler Moore, Courteney Cox and Nicole Kidman. I learned a thing or two. And the story of an 87-year-old former washerwoman who saved $150,000 to start a scholarship at the U. of Southern Mississippi is worth telling.
The buzz: If this hour clicks, People may expand it to a monthly or weekly series. Might Zahn be interested in leaving the morning shift to host a TV magazine? Not really, she said.
``The more I do the morning show, the more I want to keep doing it.''
Who is Zahn these days? News person? Entertainer? A little of both? What do you think of the new Paula Zahn and the CBS morning show?
I'll be all ears when you call Infoline at 640-5555, Category 3333. by CNB