Jon Tower, a morning-news veteran who has been filling in as an interim manager at CBS News‘ A.M. program, is now the official supervisor of the show.
Tower was named the executive producer of “CBS Mornings” in a memo sent Friday by Tom Cibrowski, president of the Skydance news unit, and the task of narrowing ratings gaps between “CBS Mornings” and its two main rivals, NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” now falls to the longtime producer.
“There is no one better positioned to lead the broadcast into its next chapter,” Cibrowski said of Tower in the memo. “He is a thoughtful journalist, a creative storyteller, and a collaborative leader who understands both the urgency of the news and the importance of the stories that resonate with the morning audience.”
Tower joined CBS News in 2014 after a stint working on the original production team that launched “Morning Joe” at was once known as MSNBC. Indeed, Tower worked closely with Chris Licht, the former “Joe” producer who helped CBS gain new traction in the mornings before working with Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” and, subsequently, running CNN.
Tower has been a senior figure at the CBS sunrise show for years. In 2020, he helped manage the program after then-executive producer Diana Miller stepped away.
Under Cibrowski, CBS News has worked to revamp the morning program, which counts Gayle King, Nate, Burleson, and now, a returning Norah O’Donnell as its main on air team, along with other regulars such as Vladimir Duthiers and Kelly O’Grady. “CBS Mornings” has long run third to its broadcast competitors, and in recent months, has seen viewership erode, noticeably so in the key audience demographic of people between 25 and 54. Cibrowski, who helped ABC News push “GMA” past “Today” for the first time in years, has tried to launch segments that have the hosts holding longer conversations about issues tied to colorful stories in the news. O’Donnell recently offered an account of how she dealt with melanoma and warned viewers against using tanning beds.
“We want to be, first and foremost, informative and helpful to the core audience that’s watching morning television,” Cibrowski told Variety in September.