CBS Morning Show: Cadillac Pimpin'

Update: The debut of CBS THIS MORNING delivered a +5% ratings boost compared to previous Mondays in December (excluding holidays), according to preliminary Nielsen live plus same day ratings for Monday, Jan. 9, 2012. CBS News press release

Richard Huff NYDN:  "Compared to what CBS had put on in the last year, it’s as if in one morning they’ve gone from driving a Hyundai to a Cadillac in the look and content of the show."

It is just my speed for 7 a.m.: Slowwww and steady, a little caffeine with an Aleve chaser. Not all of us can spar with “Morning Joe”; not at this hour. And at least “CBS This Morning” isn’t an empty gabfest. Hank Stuever Wash Post (noting Charlie looked "tired").

There wasn’t much chemistry on the CBS set, where for most of the show the hosts sat at arm’s length around a huge, circular glass table and didn’t really converse, let alone banter. Pinned between the two new stars, Ms. Hill had the forced cheer of a hostage in “Key Largo.”  NYT's Alessandra Stanley

The program’s reliance on pop music and flashy graphics sometimes make it feel like it’s trying too hard to be hip, which makes the decision to put Rose, 70, in the anchor seat all the more of a head-scratcher. Chicago Sun-Times

I never again want to hear Charlie have to handle an item, as he did this morning, about Beyonce and Jay-Z’s baby, during which he said, “It’s a huge Twitter topic that Twitter friends have been tweeting.” Memo to producers: Save our dear Charlie from social-media updates!  Ken Tucker EW

Worth the price of admission just for the pleasure of watching 70-year-old Charlie Rose look into the camera and say: “It’s a huge Twitter topic that Twitter friends have been Tweeting.”PBS’s cerebral late-night host was probably thinking: #WTF?  Veteran TV critic Gail Shister

TIME's James Poniewozik: I’ll save judgment on whether CBS This Morning is a success. King’s hour especially, being much closer to the other morning second-halves, will depend on how her personality wears over time. (I also wonder whether the network will try to merge the hours more or less; this morning at least, King and Rose seemed to work more comfortably solo than as a team.) But at least the network is trying something besides a pure copy of Today and GMA. Anyone up for a stiff cocktail at 7 a.m.?

Yeah.  Charlie . . . 

Related:  ABC's Good Morning America going full-tilt boogie to knock off Today. THR  David Hinckley NYDN