Inside The “Evening News,” Filling Out The Lineup Card

Public Eye has taken you into the “Evening News” control room and the “Early Show” control room. We’ve even shown you the CBS News morning editorial meeting where CBS executives and producers discuss the news you’ll see each evening, morning and into the future. Now you get to see a lineup meeting, where evening news producers gather to begin the process of putting together a show.

There is plenty of competition to get onto the newscast and much of it takes place before the lineup meeting. But it is here where the decisions begin to solidify and the broadcast starts to take shape. Today was an especially busy news day with a full menu to choose from. There is talk about whether or not to cover Saddam Hussein’s trial even though the accused refused to show up. Anchor Bob Schieffer made a compelling case for explaining how it was Saddam was able to simply refuse. There is talk about where to place President Bush’s speech and a new CBS poll and whether or not some Republican House leadership wrangling should make the show. There’s explanation of an interesting story on the Egyptian elections, a package on the MTV generation of soldiers and lots of talk about the war in Iraq.

Click on the video and find out the answers to these questions and get a first-hand look at how these issues are discussed between Schieffer, Executive Producer Jim Murphy and the rest of the “Evening News” editorial team. The lineup discussed in the meeting is subject to constant change as news develops throughout the day. This video has not been edited in any way other than to add chyrons to identify those involved. It’s an unprecedented look at a small part of the process that goes into putting together a network newscast. The video runs just about 20 minutes.

UPDATE: In case you're wondering why the shooting at the Miami airport did not come up in the meeting, there's a simple explanation: The meeting took place this morning, and news of the shooting did break until the afternoon.