“ER”, never seen it. “Late Night with David Letterman” — what’s that? When your work day begins at dawn, things like watching primetime television are a luxury.

But for Mark McEwen, co-anchor for “CBS This Morning,” watching TV isn’t exactly a priority.

“It’s kind of like the last thing you want to do when you work at Baskin Robin’s is eat ice cream,” he said.

Luckily for him, though, sitting down in front of the boob tube has replaced baseball as the national pastime. His new series “The Best of Us” will air on CBS’s new 24-hour entertainment and information cable network, Eye On Cable, in June.

Just as the title implies, “The Best of Us” captures the stories about the everyday heroes who perform extraordinary acts. McEwen said the show takes a detour from the “conveyor belt” of news and gives stories a second glance.

“We’ll pick up a story that Walter Cronkite did in the ’60s and interview that person today,” he said. “TV doesn’t usually follow up on things and you wonder, ‘What ever happened to…?’ We go back and ask, ‘was your mission accomplished?'”

And accomplishment is something the 42-year-old McEwen knows about. As weatherman, entertainment reporter and hard news journalist, McEwen has interviewed everyone from politicians to rock stars.

This year marks a decade McEwen has been with CBS. In 1987 he gained national attention as the weather reporter on “The Morning Show.” When “CBS This Morning” premiered late the same year, McEwen contributed music features and interviews while serving as the daily program’s weatherman — a job he looks back on with bitter-sweet relish.

“I probably faced more prejudice being a weatherman than being black,” he said only half jokingly. “People would sit there wondering, ‘why is this weather man interviewing me?'”

But for the one-time military brat who grew up in places like Berlin and Montgomery, Ala., the path to becoming one of the “Top Ten Most Trusted TV News Personalities” was not typical. Along the way, he has been a stand-up comic, a radio host and a commercial actor.

“I auditioned for a Federal Express commercial, Lite Beer, Burger King,” McEwen explained, “and I got all speaking parts. Then I started thinking ‘this is lucrative.'”

Consequently, CBS hired McEwen after he lost his dee jay job due to the competition that was “killing [him] across town.” That competitor, Howard Stern, and McEwen “go way back,” McEwen said. Stern at one time even replaced McEwen as a radio dee jay.

Since then, McEwen has gotten to interview his own idols like Joni Mitchell and newsmakers such as Mark Fuhrman. But it wasn’t sitting down face-to-face with President Clinton that ranks as McEwen’s “tough one” among his hundreds of interviewees.

No, it was someone who has hunted a fugitive and almost brought down Bat Man. “The hardest interview I ever did was Tommy Lee Jones,” McEwen said. “He’s a pain. He’s a real smart guy but just does not want to talk to you.”

Unlike other journalists, though, McEwen won’t do whatever it takes to get the interview. He said he does not advocate “ambush journalism” and looks on this information age with a critical eye.

“Yes, there is such a thing as too much information,” he said. “What’s that song…’57 Channels and There’s Nothing On?'”

Except, of course, his new show.