"CBS This Morning" anchors mark one year together

One year ago today, Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Anthony Mason became the new anchor team for "CBS This Morning." CBS News correspondent and CBSN anchor Vladimir Duthiers hosts the daily What to Watch segment on "CBS This Morning." He talked with the three co-hosts about what the past year has been like.

Read the transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity, below.

VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Gayle, let me start with you. What has been your favorite memory of the past year?
 
GAYLE KING: So that was our very first day. And the thing that I remember so much about that moment -- because we had done many different things leading up to that moment -- what I like is on this particular day, I felt really at ease and comfortable. We didn't have to go through that "getting to know you, getting to know..." you know the song, because we had all worked together.
 
ANTHONY MASON: I mean, I can't believe it's been a year. I was going back through my Instagram feed trying to remember the stuff we'd done and thinking, "Oh, there isn't really that much." There's tons of stuff! I mean, I went off to cover the anniversary of D-Day less than a month after the show started. That feels like a hundred years ago now.
 
TONY DOKOUPIL: I was the new guy. I'd been at that table hundreds of times. I knew Gayle and Anthony very well. But still, as the new guy you're trying to figure everything out. "How much coffee should I have here? Do I need these contact lenses, or can I actually see that? I can't tell." It's the little things that get you comfortable, you know? You're an animal. You're trying to find the habitat, feel your way through it.
 
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: The spontaneity of the show is -- I think has been sort of exhilarating to watch over the course of the last year, where there are moments that happen between the three of you or with the correspondents that really aren't planned for but that sort of show the authenticity of who you are, of what the show is.
 
GAYLE KING: You cannot plan spontaneity. That's the beauty, I think, of what we do. You know, you get out. You put the team on the air. You get out and you do your job. You figure out what works and what doesn't work. And fortunately, we can figure that out pretty quickly. When I think about the highlights for me, it's always interviews, of course. You always have a highlight of that. But what I like is how the three of us have come together during this time. We've got great bones of the show, and what it represents is great storytelling and original reporting, and we still stick with that.

GAYLE KING: I like that it's not an adventure in silly-school, but we can also have fun. We're not comedians, but we can still be funny, and we can also give you a really strong, solid broadcast. There's not a day that goes by that somebody doesn't say, "I'm so glad to wake up — I see you and Anthony, I see you and Tony, you guys are smiling, you guys are delivering us the news. It lets us know that there's some normalcy in the world."
 
GAYLE KING: On a lighter note, I just want to say something about Anthony. When you were talking about coming into our homes, because that was also a decision. Do I want a camera in the house? What room is it gonna be in? How is it gonna look? Da-da-da-da-da. Because everybody's got something to say. They're looking at that monitor -- I got a thing on Instagram, "Is Gayle's monitor gonna fall off? It's holding on. What are those bottles behind Anthony? Where is Tony Dokoupil? What room?" So people are very critical. That pillow is crooked, somebody said, "God, please straighten the damn pillow. It's making me uneasy." Anyway, people get very serious about this.
 
GAYLE KING: But let's go to Anthony Mason on this point, Vlad! You know, there's somebody that's rating the rooms, and Anthony Mason got a 9 out of 10, because they said he did not have the obligatory bookshelf, that he has beautiful art, it's very well-done. Then the next day, somebody sends me a tweet about the bottles behind Anthony. "Are they beer bottles? Are there stoppers?" People are really looking and paying attention.
 
ANTHONY MASON: Yeah, it's true. And everybody's an interior decorator, too, Gayle. That's what we've also learned. And I wanted to say one thing here, which is the people who are putting this show together right now who you don't see on the air, but have done an unbelievable job for the last two months, ironing out all of these little problems that we're dealing with like this delay that causes our reactions to sometimes step on each other, they've done — I mean, what's happened with this show, they will never get the full appreciation they deserve, because it's been remarkable.
 
GAYLE KING: Vlad, I'll just say happy anniversary to us. Happy anniversary to us.
 
TONY DOKOUPIL: Yes.
 
ANTHONY MASON: Happy anniversary to us.
 
VLADIMIR DUTHIERS: Happy anniversary to all of you, to us, to our crew, to our staff members-- to the folks who bring us on the air every single day, and of course, for the folks who've been watching all along with us for this past year. We certainly thank them for their support and thank them for their well wishes. Even when they are offering decorating advice, I'll take it any time. It's been an incredible year. And we thank you all for watching.