Gayle King Can't Wait to Premiere 'CBS This Morning' with New Team: 'We're Ready!'

Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil are joining Gayle King on the morning news program

Published on May 19, 2019 02:00 PM

CBS This Morning will debut its new team on Monday, and veteran host Gayle King says they can’t wait to get started.

“It’s like Tiffany Haddish always says, ‘She readdddy.’ Well I say, ‘We readdddy.’ Let’s go,” King tells PEOPLE.

CBS announced May 6 that veteran Anthony Mason and broadcaster Tony Dokoupil would be joining King on the morning news program, replacing Norah O’Donnell and John Dickerson. (O’Donnell will take over at CBS Evening News and Dickerson will move to 60 Minutes.)

“The three of us on the table on Monday are not going to be strangers to CBS News viewers,” says King, 64. “I’ve been here, Anthony’s been here, Tony’s been here. I know we keep saying ‘new show,’ the only thing new about the show is that we’re in different positions.

“I don’t want people to tune in and think it’s going to be drastically different. If all goes according to planned, the show is not going to be drastically different, it’s just that the three of us together is new.”

Adds Mason, 62: “The really cool part of this is there isn’t a ‘get to know you’ period for us. We know each other. I think we feel really ready and prepared to do this. We’re excited about that because we know what we all can do and we just want to see what happens.”

While the new job comes with a very early wakeup call, Dokoupil, 38, says he’s happy to set his alarm.

“It’s amazing how quickly you forget how tired you are because what you’re doing is so interesting and you have so much passion for it,” he says. “The conundrum for me is there’s really only two ways to prepare for a show like this: You stay up really late reading the news or you get up extraordinarily early and read the news. There’s a certain point in the night where staying up late and getting up early kind of overlap. I think at about 4 a.m. I’m not sure which side of the 4 a.m. line I’m going to fall on.”

CBS This Morning airs weekdays at 7 a.m. ET on CBS.