Your Sunday morning is about to get a female-friendly makeover. Jane Pauley will replace Charles Osgood as the anchor of CBS’s “Sunday Morning,” The New York Times reports. Osgood is retiring. Pauley will take on hosting duties beginning October 9. The weekly show launched in 1979, but Pauley will be just the third anchor to take the reins, and the first female one, in its nearly 40-year run.
Pauley has previously filled in for Osgood on “Sunday Morning” and for Scott Pelley on “CBS Evening News.” She’s also reported stories for “Sunday Morning.”
“Charles Osgood is a television news legend — and so is Jane Pauley,” said David Rhodes, president of CBS News.
Pauley launched onto the news scene 40 years ago when she replaced Barbara Walters as an anchor on the “Today” show. Pauley was just 25 years old at the time. She later served as the host of NBC’s “Deadline” from 1992 to 2003.
The NYT describes “Sunday Morning” as “a powerful ratings machine: It attracts nearly six million viewers and is by far the most-watched Sunday morning news show. Its big viewership has helped the show that follows it, ‘Face the Nation,’ remain the most-viewed Sunday morning public affairs show.”
Research from the Women’s Media Center suggests that men dominate the Sunday morning broadcast news business. For example, men account for 70 percent of all guests.
“Charles Osgood set the standard for ‘CBS Sunday Morning,’” Pauley said in a statement. “And it’s a great honor to be given the chance to further our show’s legacy of excellence. I look forward to bringing loyal viewers the kind of engaging, original reporting that has made the broadcast so irresistible for so long.”
Pauley was inducted into the Broadcast and Cable Hall of Fame in 1998, and received the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2007. She’s also won multiple Emmy awards.
