At the top of the 8:30AM ET half hour of Friday's CBS Early Show, co-hosts Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith welcomed a new contributor to the broadcast, the daughter of Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, Ayla Brown. As Smith put it: "she's about to graduate from college and she's agreed to come aboard as a special contributor with us here on the Early Show."
Rodriguez led into the announcement by recalling: "...remember back in January, Ayla Brown made headlines sort of by accident when her father, newly elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, announced during his victory speech that she was 'available.'" Smith followed by mentioning Brown's previous appearance on the show: "And remember then a couple of weeks later, we asked Ayla, who's a veteran of American Idol, to sing for us here on the Early Show. She knocked it out of the park."
After sharing the news, Rodriguez and Smith spoke with Brown, who was in studio. Rodriguez explained: "I remember that morning, not only did you do great singing, but you were such a natural fit with us here on the show.... I said you should work here." Brown replied: "You did say that. So should I thank you for having me here today?" Rodriguez gushed: "No, the viewers should thank me for having you here today."
Rodriguez asked if Brown was "excited" to be joining the show, Brown responded: "I'm so excited. It's just been a wonderful journey." She went to introduce her first report: "And I hope everyone likes this first piece. We had an incredible opportunity to meet a wonderful 13-year-old, Jordan Romero....He wants to climb Mt. Everest, not only that, but be the youngest person to do so." The full report followed later in the half hour.
