Gayle King had slept less than two hours. At times, Norah O’Donnell seemed on the verge of tearing up.

But nevertheless, the “CBS This Morning” anchors were there, seated at the glass table where they had hosted the show almost every weekday morning for the last five years.

A chair for Charlie Rose, their third co-host, was missing.

Rose was absent from Tuesday’s edition of the show he has been a part of since its inception: CBS News suspended him Monday after The Washington Post published an extensive report detailing alleged unwanted sexual advances toward women by the 75-year-old broadcaster.

Rose was fired by CBS Tuesday. His firing was announced by CBS News President David Rhodes, who wrote in a midday memo to the network’s staff that the action “followed the revelation yesterday of extremely disturbing and intolerable behavior said to have revolved around (Rose’s) PBS program.”

And on the morning after the newsman became the newsmaker, the sexual harassment allegations against Rose were the top story on “CBS This Morning.”

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“We’re going to begin with news affecting all of us,” O’Donnell said matter-of-factly at the top of the program.

“This one does hit close to home,” correspondent Bianna Golodryga said in introducing a story about the allegations.

The “CBS This Morning” package recapped The Post’s reporting: Eight women, who were either employees or prospective employees of Rose’s, told The Post that he made unwanted sexual advances toward them between the late 1990s and 2011.

Those advances included lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas, the women said. CBS said it had spoken to one of Rose’s accusers, and that she declined to go on camera, but confirmed the accuracy of the report.

“As tough as this story is, it’s important that we cover it,” Golodryga said.

And then, in a remarkable segment, Rose’s co-hosts slipped out of their newswoman roles and spoke as … people, full of anger and bewilderment and betrayal.

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“This is a moment that demands a frank and honest assessment about where we stand and more generally the safety of women,” O’Donnell said. “Let me be very clear: There is no excuse for this alleged behavior. It is systematic and pervasive.”

She added: “This has to end. This behavior is wrong. Period.”

Said King: “I really am reeling. I got one hour and 42 minutes of sleep last night. Both my son and my daughter called me; Oprah called me and said, ‘Are you OK?’ I am not OK.”

The Post article, she said “was deeply disturbing, troubling and painful for me to read.”

King noted that she and Rose “enjoyed a friendship and partnership.”

Now, she said: “I’m really struggling. … What do you say, when someone that you deeply care about has done something that’s so horrible? How do you wrap your brain around that?”

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She added: “I am deeply rocked by this.”

Rose, King said, “doesn’t get a pass, because I can’t stop thinking about the anguish of these women … that and the pain that they’re going through.”

King noted that she hadn’t yet spoken to Rose but that she intended to call him at some point on Tuesday. O’Donnell said she hadn’t spoken with him, either.

She added: “We are very committed to bringing you the news, even when it affects us so deeply.”

Rose has co-hosted “CBS This Morning” since the show’s launch in 2012 and is a contributing correspondent for the network’s Sunday night show, “60 Minutes.”

His suspension was announced Monday, less than 90 minutes after The Post’s story published.

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“Charlie Rose is suspended immediately while we look into this matter,” the network said in a written statement. “These allegations are extremely disturbing and we take them very seriously.”

The suspension was also acknowledged Monday on “CBS Evening News,” where interim anchor Anthony Mason said “the wave of sexual abuse allegations we’ve been reporting from Hollywood to Washington have now touched CBS News.”

Rose was one of the best-regarded names in TV news. His 2013 interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won him both an Emmy and a Peabody Award, and in 2015 he received the Walter Cronkite Excellence in Journalism Award.

Following The Post’s report, PBS and Bloomberg said they would halt distribution of Rose’s namesake interview program, which is produced by Charlie Rose Inc., an independent television production company.

PBS, which has aired the show since its 1991 debut, replaced Monday’s scheduled edition of “Charlie Rose” with an episode of “Antiques Roadshow.”

“PBS does not fund this nightly program or supervise its production, but we expect our producers to provide a workplace where people feel safe and are treated with dignity and respect,” PBS said in a statement.

In a statement provided to The Post – and later posted on social media – Rose said: “I deeply apologize for my inappropriate behavior. I am greatly embarrassed. I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken.”

Rose took a leave of absence from “CBS This Morning” in February to undergo heart surgery to replace an artificial aortic valve. The critically acclaimed show has risen in the ratings to be competitive with NBC’s “Today” show and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”


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