Conversely, CBS executives are said to believe that such an approach will attract viewers, not repel them.

The two men who took over CBS News early this year — the “60 Minutes” producer Jeff Fager, who is chairman, and the former Fox News executive David Rhodes, who is president — have steered the news division in a more serious direction.

They have cited ratings gains on the third-place “CBS Evening News” and Sunday’s “Face the Nation” as evidence that it is working. “The Early Show,” however, is down 6 percent this fall from the same time period last year.

For decades, CBS has tried different combinations in the morning, with relatively little to show for it. In 1999, it hired Bryant Gumbel, formerly of the “Today” show. A year ago, it dismissed almost all of the co-hosts and started over from scratch with Ms. Hill. What matters more than anything else, current and former morning producers say, is the chemistry between co-hosts, and CBS has never mastered that piece.

Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of the CBS Corporation, met with CBS News executives this week to review the latest remake, which may or may not retain the name “The Early Show.” The plan calls for Mr. Rose, who has contributed in the past to the network’s most popular program, “60 Minutes,” to help lead the 7 a.m. hour with Ms. Hill, who joined CBS from CNN in early 2010.

Ms. King will help lead the 8 a.m. hour, typically the softer hour for morning news shows. CBS plans to feature its correspondents, like John Miller, a law enforcement correspondent who was recently hired by the network, and hire other contributors, in much the same way that MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” has a set of recognizable members of its roundtable.

This year, in preparation for the revamp, CBS hired Chris Licht, the former producer of “Morning Joe.” But CBS executives have disputed suggestions that they are adopting a cable approach, seeking a smaller but perhaps more well-heeled audience. “We’re programming broadcast television here, so we have a broadcast strategy,” said one.