This is based on the 1987 CBS Evening News package that was picked up again in 2011. It was performed and recorded at the end of June, debuting about a month later on the Early Show. It again unifies the branding of CBS News while also underscoring the Early Show’s hard news focus. With the cancellation of the Early Show, the new CBS This Morning started to use new theme music. However, this open is still used for other CBS News programs in the morning: the Morning News and Up To The Minute.

This is not just the current theme for the CBS Evening News, it was also the first orchestral theme for the CBS Evening News. Before this theme was adopted in 1987, CBS News had a policy, imposed by CBS TV President Frank Stanton, that no music could be used. This policy dated back to the old days of TV news when many newscasts consisted of syndicated pictures with cheap production music. To prove CBS supplied its own footage, they decided not to add any music. Besides, their music library at the time consisted of music used for those old radio soaps. It was not appropriate for news. For a few years, they had a ticker sound as open/bumper/close, but from 1984 to 1987 they had no music at all in the open and the close! After a few years of seeing their ratings decline, while John Williams’ NBC News theme was popular with the viewing public, the executives at CBS decided to finally reverse their policy and commissioned John Trivers, Elizabeth Myers, and Alan James Pasqua to compose the theme. The music was recorded at the Fox sound stage and took 6 hours to perform. This theme was dropped in 1991, but only temporarily as it later turned out.

Twenty years later this theme made a remarkable comeback. When Scott Pelley took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News, this theme was picked up again. After five flashy years of Katie Couric, the new chairman of CBS News, Jeff Fager, wanted “to reach back into the DNA of CBS News”. Hence, they brought back their first theme music. They are using the original recordings, though they have been remastered slightly.

Trivers/Myers Music - CBS Evening News close
Trivers/Myers Music - CBS Evening News open

Here is the headline cue. CBS started using it circa 1990.

This is the theme that has been used on 48 Hours Mystery since the fall of 2010. Like the previous themes, it is composed by Richard Fiocca. It’s not used for some of the special editions of 48 Hours Mystery, such as Live to Tell. That edition, which tells stories without the use of narrator, uses no theme music.

This is a fuller, more orchestral arrangement of the previous theme. After pulling double duty on the Evening News and Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer returned full time to Face the Nation after Katie Couric started as main anchor at CBS. He is now the sunday morning moderator with the longest tenure.

This theme was used for CBS’ coverage of the inauguration of President Barack Obama, anchored by Katie Couric. It is a great variation on the CBS Evening News theme composed by James Horner. While the theme is based on the Horner composition, the composer of this theme is actually Joel Beckerman of Man Made Music. Beckerman knows Horner’s theme well because he was previously involved in converting Horner’s music to a music package suited to the needs of a TV broadcast.

This is a remix of James Horner’s original Early Show theme that the morning program used for a little over three years. While the original sounds like a piece of classical music, by giving it an urban beat the theme became a very hip sounding piece of music. This theme premiered on the day that they started to use their redesigned street level set and Maggie Rodriquez started her run as co-anchor. Over the years the Early Show used various slightly differently arranged versions of this open.

Since 2002 an ensemble of four anchored the Early Show to give the show a less formal feel than other morning news shows. By the time this theme started to be used, that concept was phased out, eventually returning to a more traditional format. This is the theme that James Horner composed for the Early Show. It was recorded in New York, two weeks after the original session in Los Angeles during the summer of 2006. In comparison to his work for the Evening News, he wanted the theme for the Early Show to be more energetic, gentler and intimate. It debuted about two months after Horner’s Evening News theme went on the air. CBS decided to use this theme as the headline cue and used a shortened version of the Evening News close as its open.

This ominous sounding cue of James Horner’s theme package for the CBS Evening News was composed for special reports, impromptu newscasts that break into regularly scheduled programming. Before they start, viewers can usually see (part of) a 10-second countdown. That is used to give CBS stations around the country the chance to switch to the national feed. Before the Horner theme, CBS News used the headline cue from the 1991 Evening News package to open special reports.

For Katie Couric’s ascension to the anchor chair, the CBS Evening News was given a total makeover. Like NBC did earlier, they turned to a famous movie composer for their theme: James Horner. He is known for the scores to such hit movies as Titanic, Aliens and Avatar. They asked him to create a theme that stood out from other news themes including its previous theme. The result is music that sounds sweeping, regal and cinematic.

Although Horner scored hundreds of movies and won both Oscars and Grammys, he had never worked in television. That was different for him because TV cues have demands that movie cues don’t have. They tend to be shorter – only a few seconds – whereas film cues can last fifteen minutes. Furthermore, many special cues such as bumpers, billboards and opens are needed. Therefore Joel Beckerman of Man Made Music, who is specialized in TV, helped Horner convert his music to a theme package suited to the demands of television. He added, for example, the three notes at the beginning of the headline cue. The music was recorded in L.A. in an eight hour session with a 90-piece orchestra, consisting mostly of players with whom Horner works regularly. This theme was also used by the CBS Morning News and Up to the Minute.

Below is the headline cue open to the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. The voice of legendary anchor Walter Cronkite accompanied the open until about six months after his death. There were multiple versions of both the headline cue and the open, these are the ones that were used most.

James Horner - CBS Evening News headline cue

James Horner - CBS Evening News open

James Horner - CBS Evening News open (with Cronkite voiceover)

James Horner’s CBS package is fairly extensive, it literally contains hundreds of cuts. This is the music that CBS used for the election coverage in 2006. From 2008 onwards they used a slightly different theme.

This was the theme that CBS used for all coverage of the 2003 War in Iraq. Theme music is very important in setting the tone for the program, as music instantly brings up associations in the minds of viewers. ABC used a variation of the Special Report theme that sounds rather sad and somber for the war. NBC used music by Michael Karp that sounded very dramatic. CBS, however, took a different approach, as you can hear. The network decided on a very aggressive piece of music that would shock-and-awe you. Peter Fish composed the music.

In 2002 Dan Rather stepped down as anchor of 48 Hours and was replaced by Leslie Stahl, who is also a correspondent at 60 Minutes. The program was renamed to 48 Hours Investigates and the focus was now on telling true crime stories. Two years later the program changed its name yet again. This time it became 48 Hours Mystery. It also meant the end of Stahl’s tenure as anchor. Just like 60 Minutes, the correspondents would henceforth introduce their own stories. The theme, however, remained for many more years.

Bob Schieffer is the moderator of Face the Nation. He authored an autobiography a few years ago. The book, besides sketching a detailed picture of the media through the better part of 40 years, reveals an unseen side to Schieffer. He claims to be in a war of practical jokes with former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw. At one time he spread the rumor that Brokaw would be replaced on the Today show by Alan Alda (of M*A*S*H fame). In fact, he even sent a phony fan letter to Brokaw stating his displeasure about that. But, Brokaw was not about to let Schieffer win from him, so he read that phony fan letter on the air and concluded by saying: “I’d tell you who wrote it, but you wouldn’t recognize the name.” This theme from Face the Nation has been used from September of 2002 until May 2009 and is composed by Peter Fish.

This theme was used during the last elections that Dan Rather covered for CBS. It’s composed by Michael Colina, who has done all election music for CBS since 1976.

At the top of each hour, listeners of Westwood One affiliated stations get a six minute news update from CBS News. Since early 2003 NBC News went back into the radio news business, also providing one-minute updates to Westwood One affiliates anchored by its big names. ABC News, of course, also has its own radio network and top of the hour news service.

Here’s the sounder that the CBS Radio News uses when they have a special report. It’s part of the package composed by Peter Fish.