Charlie Rose has long been known as one of the busiest news personalities in the business, running his own popular show that appeared on PBS and Bloomberg while also co-hosting CBS This Morning. The revelations that Rose often used his remaining energy to make unwanted advances to women who worked for him means Rose doesn’t have any of those jobs anymore. All three platforms have suspended the 75-year-old talking head. For all the popularity of his eponymous Charlie Rose show, it’s the big network CBS This Morning where Rose reached the largest audience — and a primarily female audience at that. It’s hardly possible that Rose will return to the CBS This Morning set after the Washington Post published the allegations made against Rose by eight women, a number which seems as if it will be merely the tip of the Rose iceberg.
So CBS This Morning must replace Rose, who is/was the lone male voice on the broadcast which he has co-hosted since its launch in 2012. Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King are the co-hosts. The 3-person panel has worked well, as CBS This Morning has climbed in the ratings. But will CBS close ranks of a sort, and make the show — like The View — an all-women affair? Will it leave O’Donnell and King together to carry the load as a duo, or replace Rose with a new personality? The vetting of any male correspondent will have to be exhaustive and perilous. One strong idea for CBS is to try to lure South African journalist Debora Patta, a CBS correspondent who has actually explored the topic of sexual assault and sexual addiction in her reporting, into CBS This Morning hosting duties. There would be some poetic justice to bringing in Patta, who also brings the hard news gravitas that Rose supplied and a female perspective in one package.
