Sunday Morning Aug. 23, 2026: Steve Hartman hosts tick and jazz reports
Steve Hartman guest-hosts CBS News Sunday Morning, with reports on ticks, jazz history, Casa Verdi and more.
By Deshawn Carter · Sports Writer
2 min read
Sunday Morning Aug. 23, 2026, will put ticks, a famed Harlem jazz portrait and a singular New Jersey home on the CBS schedule, with Steve Hartman serving as guest host.
CBS and Paramount Press Express list the program for 9 to 10:30 a.m. ET on CBS. It will begin streaming at 11 a.m. ET on the CBS News app, according to CBS. The announced lineup remains subject to change.
What is on CBS News Sunday Morning on Aug. 23?
The cover report, by David Pogue, examines tick bites and alpha-gal syndrome. CBS says the segment visits Martha’s Vineyard, where residents are responding to what the network calls an epidemic of the condition, and speaks with experts about avoiding tick bites. Alpha-gal syndrome is an allergy that CBS says can follow a Lone Star tick bite and can cause a reaction to red meat.
Mo Rocca heads to Harlem for the story of photographer Art Kane’s 1958 group portrait of jazz musicians. CBS says Rocca speaks with Kane’s son, Jonathan, and bassist Ron Carter, who performed with many of the musicians in the photograph.
Serena Altschul visits Luna Parc, artist Ricky Boscarino’s home in Sandyston, New Jersey. CBS says Boscarino has spent more than 35 years transforming the house and its 8.5-acre grounds with sculpture, ceramics and mosaics, including an outdoor installation called the “electric garden.”
Another scheduled interview features botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Correspondent Martha Teichner will talk with Kimmerer about her books, including Braiding Sweetgrass and The Serviceberry, as well as scientific and Indigenous knowledge, planting trees and sharing nature’s gifts, CBS said.
Which Sunday Morning segment is an encore?
Lee Cowan’s interview with Kenny Chesney is the repeat in the lineup. CBS identifies it as originally broadcast on Oct. 26, 2025. The Florida Keys conversation covers Chesney’s memoir, Heart Life Music, along with his family, touring and his recovery after a 2009 concert experience he describes in the program.
Chris Livesay will also report from Casa Verdi in Milan, the retirement home for professional musicians established by composer Giuseppe Verdi. CBS says residents share their experience with younger musicians through master classes.
Hartman’s own report centers on Fletcher Merkel’s bedroom and conversations with his parents, Jesse and Mollie. CBS identifies Fletcher, 8, as one of two students killed when a gunman fired into Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis last August.
The broadcast is also slated to include its regular Aug. 23 almanac and “Passage” in-memoriam features.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.