First look: new CBS early morning anchor team of Brendan Higgins & Adrienne Bankert

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom
They're all aglow for now.

Newly hired CBS11 early morning anchor Brendan Higgins just posted this Facebook picture with Adrienne Bankert, likewise a new acquisition.

As previously posted, they'll first team together on Monday, June 25th. Higgins is a familiar face to many D-FW viewers after six years on rival NBC5's yawn patrol. He left over a contract disagreement in January of 2010.

Bankert previously worked at NBC affiliate KCRA-TV in Sacramento, where she was part of the morning news team since 2004.

Together they'll face a steeper climb than Mount Everest. CBS11's early morning Nielsen ratings are all but buried in a fourth place Death Valley after a miserable May "sweeps" ratings book.

The station's average of 30,551 viewers in the 6 a.m. hour was less than one-third that of frontrunner NBC5's. And in the key news demographic of 25-to-54-year-olds, CBS11 had just 14,956 viewers compared to first place Fox4's 51,369. NBC5 and WFAA8, which tied for a close-behind second place in this measurement, likewise had more than three times as many viewers as CBS11.

But hope springs eternal, even if CBS11 may not climb out of fourth place until hell freezes over. The station will need an abundance of new energy and an eye-catching promotional campaign before it can even think of turning things around. But the ratings are so bad that Higgins-Bankert have virtually nowhere to go except up. And that's the upside.