'Face the Nation' to remain hour-long permanently

The Associated Press, Sunday, July 29, 2012, 5:08pm (PDT)

BEVERLY HLLS, Calif. (AP) -- "Face the Nation" is remaining an hour long.

CBS News says the Sunday interview program will stick with its hour length beyond its provisional expansion that began in April.

Until then, the broadcast had been only 30 minutes in duration, half the length of rival shows "Meet the Press" on NBC and "This Week" on ABC. Roughly one-third of CBS stations still aren't airing the second half-hour each week.

CBS News president David Rhodes says the announcement Sunday is meant to assure those holdouts that the show's expansion won't be short-lived.

The announcement was made at the Television Critics Association conference.

"Face the Nation," with Bob Schieffer anchoring, has grown in viewership in recent months and is now the top-rated Sunday morning public-affairs show.