No McEwen In The Mornings

Mark McEwen, who has been a mainstay of CBS mornings for nearly 16 years, is stepping down to pursue other projects, including writing a book.

McEwen will stay with The Early Show for another few weeks. He'll continue to host "Live By Request" on A&E.

McEwen has been The Early Show's entertainment and weather reporter since the broadcast went on the air in November 1999, following three years as co-anchor of "This Morning."

Through the years, he has interviewed a who's who of personalities, from presidents and Washington powerbrokers to sports icons to virtually every important entertainment figure in the business.

He's covered all of the major entertainment events many times over, including the Academy Awards, the Grammy Awards, the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globes, the MTV Video Music Awards and the Country Music Association Awards.

McEwen has covered three Olympics for the morning program, reporting from Albertville and Lillehammer and co-anchoring from Nagano. He even ran a leg of the Olympic torch relay in Japan.

The premiere episode of "Live by Request," featuring Tony Bennett, won an Emmy Award in 1996. In 2000, McEwen hosted "Celebrity Dish" on The Food Network, which brought him into the kitchen with 60 Minutes' Ed Bradley and Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg, among others.

Putting his wide-ranging experience to use, McEwen also won the 1997 and 1998 "Celebrity Jeopardy" tournaments.

He received the Country Music Association's 1992 award for Electronic Media Journalist of the Year.