“On Halloween you know who we were? He was Charlie Rose, she was Norah O’Donnell, and I was Gayle King. And we had a great time that day,” said the co-anchor of “CBS This Morning” during a panel for their show at the recent Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour .
The perennial third place finisher after NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” is steadily gaining ground on the competition, and King says it’s because their program staked its claim early as a more news-driven alternative.
“This is the thing that I like so much about morning TV, is that there really is something on morning news for everybody, whatever your taste is,” she said.
Below, Oprah Winfrey’s BFF says “CBS This Morning” has settled into the perfect mix of being both fun and informative – without venturing into cheese.
Meanwhile, Variety caught King on the red carpet of the National Cares Mentoring Movement’s inaugural “For the Love of Our Children” gala in New York on Monday evening.
Guess what issue she was asked to discuss?
“It’s very encouraging to see already that people are speaking up in Hollywood. People know there is a problem and I think most people want to fix it. So I remain very optimistic,” King said regarding the #OscarsSoWhite issue. She’s the latest in a long list of African American celebs asked to comment. “I think Ice Cube said it really well. He said, ‘I’m disappointed, but I’m not discouraged.’ And that’s exactly how I feel. You can’t get discouraged. Change doesn’t come without being discouraged.”
Asked if she would boycott the Oscars if nominated, “It’s a personal decision to go or not to go, but I believe that it’s important to show up,” said King, 61. “The problem with the Oscars is bigger than the Oscars, bigger than the nominations. It really is a systemic problem. But, if I were nominated, I would be there. I don’t know if boycotting is the way to send the right message. I want them to know that we are here, we care and changes need to be made.”
As for pushback suggesting that no African American performances were worthy of a nomination this year, King begs to differ. “I saw a lot of possibilities of people that could be nominated,” she said. “If you look at a lot of the movies, there were a lot of options. So, it just shows to me that we have a lot of work to do in Hollywood.”
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