CBS News journalist Charles Osgood, the host of “CBS Sunday Morning” for more than two decades, died Tuesday at 91 years old. According to CBS News, Osgood was living with dementia for a period of time before his death.
Osgood spent 45 years at CBS News before retiring in 2016. During his tenure at “Sunday Morning”, the show reached some of its highest ratings levels in three decades, and earned the Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Morning Program on three different occasions. His tenure on “Sunday Morning” was in fact longer than the show’s original host, Charles Kuralt. Jane Pauley, who took over hosting duties of “Sunday Morning” after Osgood retired, shared: “Watching him at work was a masterclass in communicating. I’ll still think to myself, ‘How would Charlie say it?’, trying to capture the elusive warmth and intelligence of his voice and delivery. I expect I’ll go on trying.”
Rand Morrison, longtime executive producer of “Sunday Morning”, shared via CBS News: “To say there’s no one like Charles Osgood is an understatement. He embodied the heart and soul of ‘Sunday Morning.’ His signature bow tie, his poetry … just his presence was special for the audience, and for those of us who worked with him.”
Osgood became an anchor-reporter for WCBS NewsRadio 88 in New York in 1967, where he anchored the first morning drive shift when the station became an all-news outlet. He would eventually make his way to CBS News, where he launched the radio-news segment “The Osgood File”, which ran between 1971 and 2017. The audio vignettes were heard four times each weekday morning on various stations across the U.S. He would often bid listeners farewell by telling them: “I’ll see you on the radio.” Osgood was also known for saying: “Short words, short sentences, short paragraphs. There’s nothing that can’t be improved by making it shorter and better.”
Osgood is survived by his wife of 50 years, the former Jean Crafton; five children (Kathleen Wood Griffis, Kenneth Winston Wood, Anne-E Wood, Emily J. Wood and Jamie Wood); a sister, Mary Ann; and a brother, Ken. His first marriage to Theresa Audette ended in divorce after 16 years.
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