Why can’t you be happy just being the wind beneath Gayle’s wings? Word on the street is that “CBS This Morning” co-host Norah O’Donnell can’t help but be overshadowed by her co-anchor — Oprah’s bestie Gayle King.
Via Confidenti@l reports:
“CBS This Morning” star Norah O’Donnell is growing tired of being the underdog to co-host Gayle King, otherwise known as Oprah’s BFF.
O’Donnell, the network’s former chief White House correspondent, has been hosting alongside King and Charlie Rose since July 2012. Ratings have taken off for the morning show, up against “Today” and “Good Morning America,” since the threesome got together. But when King and O’Donnell were asked to be guests together on “The Talk” recently, O’Donnell was well aware King was the star, one insider tells Confidenti@l.
“Norah could barely get a word in with the ladies, but she let Gayle do her thing,” says the source.
“Backstage Norah was quiet, and she and Gayle didn’t really speak until they were in front of the cameras together. Then it was all charm,” says the source. “Then Norah, who has interviewed Presidents, had to play a game talking about the ‘Gayle-isms’ that she has picked up sitting next to Oprah’s BFF. She wasn’t thrilled, but it is what it is. Gayle’s been doing this for a very long time.”
The ladies’ co-host, Rose, is so wary of any drama that he’s taken to avoiding their makeup room in the morning. “He gets his makeup and hair done in another area,” says the source.
O’Donnell took over after former co-host Erica Hill went to “Weekend Today” after a shaky six months. King signed a deal in late 2011, and began her co-anchor job in January 2012.
Despite behind-the-scenes drama, “This Morning” is certainly not a Matt Lauer-Ann Curry situation. The CBS show is up in the ratings, and the on-air chemistry between the three appears to be working.
The group posed together for an April story in The Hollywood Reporter in which King discussed the rising ratings. She told the magazine that she met a lot of new fans at a party at U.S. diplomat Susan Rice’s house.
“So many people came up and said, ‘I watch you guys in the morning,’ ‘I’ve switched from’ … you fill in the blank,” King said. “We don’t walk around saying, ‘Are you watching us?’ People just come up and say it, and that is really gratifying.”
Jeez what a baby! Life is hard Norah, suck it up already!
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