Election role of morning anchors shows change in television

ABC, CBS and NBC are doing their part for coffee consumption next week by giving big roles for their morning show teams on live election night coverage.

The entire four-person team on “CBS This Morning” will be in the anchor chairs for that network’s midterm results show, while George Stephanopoulos of “Good Morning America” and Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s “Today” show have lead roles at their networks.

It illustrates the importance of those morning shows to the networks’ bottom line, and is a change from the time when evening news anchors were the traditional leaders of news divisions.

As a result, there will be some bleary eyes on TV screens Wednesday morning.