:''This article is about the broadcast network. For its parent company, see
CBS Corporation. For other uses of CBS, see
CBS (disambiguation)''
'CBS Broadcasting, Inc.' ('CBS') is one of the largest
radio and
television networks in the
United States. The name is derived from the initialism of 'Columbia Broadcasting System', its former legal name. The network is sometimes referred to as the 'Tiffany Network', which alludes to the perceived quality of CBS programming during the tenure of its founder
William S. Paley.
[1] It can also refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of color television, which were held in a former
Tiffany & Co. building in
New York City in 1950.
[2]
The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc., a collection of 16 radio stations that was bought by William S. Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paley's guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States and then one of the big three American broadcast television networks. In 1974, CBS dropped its full name and became known simply as ''CBS, Inc.'' The
Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired the network in
1995 and eventually adopted the name of the company it had bought to become ''CBS Corporation''. In 2000, CBS came under the control of
Viacom, which coincidentally had begun as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In late 2005, Viacom split itself and reestablished
CBS Corporation with the CBS television network at its core. CBS Corporation and the new Viacom are controlled by
Sumner Redstone through
National Amusements, the parent of the two companies.
History
Early years
CBS can trace its origins to the creation, on
January 27,
1927, of the "United Independent Broadcasters" network. Established by
New York talent agent
Arthur Judson, United soon looked for additional investors; the Columbia Phonographic Manufacturing Company (also owners of
Columbia Records), rescued the company in April 1927, and as a result, the network was renamed "Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System." Columbia Phonographic went on the air on
September 18,
1927, from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and 15 affiliates.
Unable to sell enough air time to advertisers, on
September 25,
1927, Columbia sold the network for $500,000 to
William S. Paley, son of a Philadelphia cigar manufacturer. With Columbia Phonographic's removal, Paley streamlined the corporate name to "Columbia Broadcasting System". Paley believed in the power of radio advertising; his family's company had seen their "La Palina" cigar become a best-seller after young William convinced his elders to advertise it on Philadelphia station
WCAU.
In
November 1927, Columbia paid $410,000 to
A.H. Grebe's
Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the network's
flagship station.
[1] WABC was quickly upgraded, and the signal relocated to a stronger frequency, 860
kHz. (In 1946, WABC was re-named
WCBS; the station moved to a new frequency, 880 kHz, in the FCC's 1941 reassignment of stations.) It was where much of CBS's programming originated; other owned-and-operated stations were
KNX Los Angeles,
KCBS San Francisco (originally KQW),
WBBM Chicago,
WJSV Washington, DC (later
WTOP, which moved to the FM dial in 2005; the AM facility today is
WTWP, also a CBS Radio affiliate),
KMOX St. Louis, and
WCCO Minneapolis. These remain the core affiliates of the
CBS Radio Network today, with
WCBS still the flagship, and all but WTOP/WTWP (both
Bonneville Broadcasting properties) owned by CBS Radio.
Later in 1928, another investor,
Paramount Pictures (who ironically would eventually be co-owned with CBS, see below), bought Columbia stock, and for a time it was thought the network would be renamed "Paramount Radio". Any chance of further Paramount involvement ended with the
1929 stock market crash; the near-bankrupt studio sold its shares back to CBS in 1932.
As the third national network, CBS soon had more affiliates than either of
NBC's two, in part because of a more generous rate of payment to affiliates. NBC's owner and founder of RCA, David Sarnoff, believed in technology, so NBC's affiliates had the latest RCA equipment, and were often the best-established stations, or were on "
clear channel" frequencies. Paley believed in the power of programming, and CBS quickly established itself as the home of many popular musical and comedy stars, among them
Bing Crosby,
Al Jolson,
George Burns &
Gracie Allen, and
Kate Smith. In 1938, NBC and CBS each opened studios in Hollywood to attract movieland's top talent to their networks — NBC at Radio City on Sunset and Vine, CBS two blocks away at
Columbia Square.
In the hard times of the early 1930s, CBS radio broadened its offerings; having refused an
AP franchise for news, Paley launched an independent news division, shaped in its first years by Paley's vice-president, former ''
New York Times'' man Ed Klauber, and news director Paul White. Another early hire, in 1935, was
Edward R. Murrow, brought in as "Director of Talks." It was Murrow's reports, particularly during the dark days of the
London Blitz, which contributed to CBS News' image for on-the-spot coverage. As European news chief and later head of the news division, Murrow assembled a team of reporters and editors that propelled CBS News to the forefront of the industry.
On
October 30,
1938, CBS gained a taste of infamy when
Orson Welles and the
Mercury Theatre broadcast an adaptation of
H. G. Wells' ''
The War of the Worlds''. Its unique format, a contemporary version of the story in the form of ''faux'' news broadcasts, had many CBS listeners panicked into believing invaders from
Mars were actually devastating
Grovers Mill,
New Jersey, despite three disclaimers during the broadcast it was a work of fiction. CBS would later revive the format for television in the 1990s for ''
Without Warning'', which told the story of asteroids crashing to Earth, but the television format allowed for disclaimers to air at every commercial break, avoiding a replay of what happened in 1938.
Also in 1938, CBS bought
American Record Corporation, the parent of its former investor
Columbia Records.
Prior to the onset of
World War II, CBS recruited
Edmund A. Chester from his position as Bureau Chief for Latin America at
Associated Press to serve as Director of Latin American Relations and Director of Short Wave Broadcasts for the CBS radio network (1940). In this capacity, Mr. Chester coordinated the development of the
Network of the Americas (La Cadena de las Americas) with the
Department of State, the Office for Inter-American Affairs (as chaired by
Nelson Rockefeller) and
Voice of America. This network provided vital news and cultural programming throughout
South America and
Central America during the crucial World War II era and fostered benevolent diplomatic relations between the
United States of America and the less developed nations of the continent. It featured such popular radio broadcasts as ''
Viva America''
[2] which showcased leading musical talent from both North and South America.
As long as radio was the dominant advertising medium, CBS dominated broadcasting. All through the 1950s and 1960s, CBS programs were often the highest-rated. A much-publicized "talent raid" on NBC in the mid-1940s brought
Jack Benny,
Edgar Bergen and
Amos 'n' Andy into the CBS fold. Paley also was an innovator in creating original programming; since broadcasting's earliest days, time had been sold to advertising agencies in half- or full-hour blocks. The ad agencies, not the networks, would then create the program to fill the time, thus it was " 'The Johnson's Wax Program', with
Fibber McGee & Molly", or " 'The
Pepsodent Show', with
Bob Hope." At Paley's urging, beginning in the mid-1940s, CBS began creating its own programs; among the long-running shows that came from this project were ''You Are There'' (born as ''CBS Was There''), ''
My Favorite Husband'' (starring
Lucille Ball; the show proved a kind of blueprint for her big CBS television hit ''
I Love Lucy''), ''
Our Miss Brooks'' (whose star,
Eve Arden, was encouraged personally by Paley to try out for the title role), ''
Gunsmoke'' and ''
The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet''. In time this idea was carried further, selling ad time by the minute, so ad agencies no longer had complete control over what went out over "Paley's air".
CBS moved at a deliberate pace into
television; as late as 1950 it owned only one station;
radio continued to be the backbone of the company. Gradually, as the television network took shape, big radio stars began to drift to television. The radio
soap opera ''
The Guiding Light'' moved to television in 1952 and still airs today; Burns & Allen made the move in 1950; Lucille Ball a year later; ''Our Miss Brooks'' in 1952 (though it continued simultaneously on radio for its full television life). The high-rated
Jack Benny radio show ended in 1955, and Edgar Bergen's Sunday-night show went off the air in 1957. When CBS announced in 1956 that its radio operations had lost money, while the television network had made money, it was clear where the future lie. When the soap opera
Ma Perkins went off the air
November 25,
1960 only eight, relatively minor series remained. Prime-time radio ended on
September 30,
1962 when, the legendary ''
Suspense'', aired for the final time.
After the retirement of talk-show pioneer
Arthur Godfrey in
1972, CBS radio programming consisted of hourly news broadcast and an extensive schedule of news features, known in the 1970s as Dimension, and commentaries, including the well received Spectrum series of commentaries which evolved into the Point/Counterpoint feature on the television network's 60 Minutes and First Line Report, a well-regarded news and analysis feature delivered by CBS correspondents and offered to the CBS radio stations. The network also continued to offer traditional radio programming through its nightly "CBS Mystery Theater", the lone holdout of old-style programming. The
CBS Radio Network continues to this day, but offers primarily its well-regarded newscasts, including its centerpiece World News Roundup in the morning and evening and news-related features like "The Osgood File" and "
Harry Smith Reporting" as well as other talk properties like "
Opie and Anthony"
The television years: expansion and growth
CBS's first television broadcasts were experimental, often only for one hour a day, and reaching a limited area in and around New York City (over station W2XAB channel 2, later called WCBW and finally WCBS-TV). To catch up with rival RCA, CBS bought Hytron Laboratories in 1939, and immediately moved into set production and color broadcasting. Though there were many competing patents and systems, RCA dictated the content of the
FCC's technical standards, and grabbed the spotlight from CBS,
DuMont and others by introducing television to the general public at the
1939 New York World's Fair. The FCC began licensing commercial television stations on
July 1,
1941; the first license went to RCA and NBC's WNBT (now
WNBC); the second license, issued that same day, was to WCBW, (now
WCBS). CBS-Hytron offered a practical color system in 1941, but it was not compatible with the black-and-white standards set down by RCA. In time, and after considerable dithering, the FCC rejected CBS's technology in favor of that backed by RCA.
During the
World War II years, commercial television broadcasting was reduced dramatically. Toward the end of the war, commercial television began to ramp up again, with an increased level of programming evident in the 1945-1947 period on the three New York television stations which operated in those years (the local stations of NBC, CBS and DuMont) But as RCA and DuMont raced to establish networks and offer upgraded programming, CBS lagged, advocating an industry-wide shift and re-start to UHF for their incompatible (with black and white) color system. Only in 1950, when NBC was dominant in television and black and white transmission was widespread, did CBS begin to buy or build their own stations (outside of New York) in Los Angeles, Chicago and other major cities. Up to that point, CBS programming was seen on such stations as KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, which CBS--as a bit of insurance and to guarantee program clearance in Los Angeles--quickly purchased a 50% interest in. CBS then sold their interest in KTTV and purchased outright Los Angeles pioneer station KTSL (Channel 2) in 1950, renaming it KNXT (after sister CBS radio station KNX), later to become KCBS. The "talent raid" on NBC of the mid-forties had brought over established radio stars; they now became stars of CBS television as well. One reluctant CBS star refused to bring her radio show, "My Favorite Husband," to television unless the network would re-cast the show with her real-life husband in the lead. Paley and network president
Frank Stanton had so little faith in the future of
Lucille Ball's series, re-dubbed ''
I Love Lucy'', that they granted her wish and allowed the husband,
Desi Arnaz, to take financial control of the production. This was the making of the Ball-Arnaz
Desilu empire, and became the template for series production to this day.
In the late 1940s, CBS offered imaginative and historic live television coverage of the proceedings
United Nations General Assembly(1949). This journalist tour-de-force was under the direction of
Edmund A. Chester, who was appointed to the post of Director for News, Special Events and Sports at CBS Television in 1948. The broadcast clearly underscored CBS's long term commitment to excellence in broadcast journalism in the post World War II era.
As television came to the forefront of American entertainment and information, CBS dominated television as it once had radio. By the late 1950s, the network often controlled seven or eight of the slots on the "top ten" ratings list. This would continue for many years, with CBS bumped from first place only by the rise of
ABC in the mid-1970s. Perhaps because of its status as the top-rated network, during the late 1960s and early 1970s CBS felt freer to gamble with controversial properties like the ''
Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' and ''
All in the Family'' and its many spinoffs during this period.
CBS "Eye" Logo in 1966.
William Paley was a buyer of art, and a backer of New York's
Museum of Modern Art. CBS offices were filled with original works. Paley shared this interest with Frank Stanton (1908-2006), CBS President (1946-1971), who carried this belief over into the design elements surrounding the network. When CBS bought Los Angeles station KNX in 1936 for a west-coast production headquarters, Frank Stanton demanded that architect
William Lescaze be hired to create
Columbia Square, a distinctive, modern broadcasting center on Sunset Boulevard. Similarly, when CBS commissioned
Eero Saarinen to design a new corporate center in New York in the 1960s, Stanton supervised every aspect of the project, even dictating what could be displayed in employee offices and on desktops. This belief in art, graphics and branding carried over to such things as the CBS Television's logo, the unblinking eye logo (designed by
William Golden and introduced in 1951). An example of CBS's graphic-design particularity: on all official CBS letterhead, a tiny dot (at most a
point in diameter) was pre-printed to indicate to a secretary where the typewriter carriage should be positioned for the salutation of a letter.
Although CBS-TV was the first with a working color television system, they lost out to RCA in 1953, due in part because the CBS color system was incompatible with existing black-and-white sets. By the early 1960s, CBS-TV was void of transmitting anything in color - save for a few specials and only if the sponsor would pay for it.
Red Skelton was the first CBS host to telecast his weekly programs in color, using a converted movie studio, in the early 1960s; he tried unusuccessfully to persuade the network to use his facility for other programs, then was forced to sell it. Color was being pushed hard by rival NBC. Even ABC-TV had several color programs in 1962, where CBS-TV had none, although they did have an occasional color special, such as their 1957 telecast of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's ''
Cinderella'', their annual telecasts of ''
The Wizard of Oz'', and ''
Playhouse 90's only color broadcast, the 1958 production of ''
The Nutcracker''. One famous CBS-TV special made during this era was the tour of the White House with First Lady Jackie Kennedy. It was, however, shown in black-and-white. This would all change by the mid-1960s, when market pressure forced CBS-TV to add color programs to the schedule. By 1968, all of CBS's TV programs were being shown in color, as they were on
NBC and
ABC.
The conglomerate
During the 1960s, CBS began an effort to diversify, and looked for suitable investments. In 1965 it acquired
electric guitar maker
Fender from
Leo Fender, who agreed to sell his company due to health problems (The purchase also included that of
Rhodes electric pianos, which had already been acquired by Fender).
In other diversification attempts, CBS would buy (and later sell) sports teams (especially the
New York Yankees baseball club), book and magazine publishers (
Fawcett Publications including
Woman's Day, and
Holt, Rinehart and Winston), map-makers, toy manufacturers (Gabriel Toys, Child Guidance, Wonder Products), and other properties.
As William Paley aged, he tried to find the one person who could follow in his footsteps. Over the years any number of accomplished, successful businessmen were recruited, loudly praised to the press, only later to be summarily dismissed.
By the mid-1980s, the investor
Laurence Tisch had begun to acquire substantial holdings in CBS. Eventually he gained Paley's confidence, and then his blessing, taking control of CBS in 1986. But Tisch had no dreams of quality or of "Tiffany" networks; he expected a return on his investment.
When CBS faltered, under-performing units were given the axe. Among the first properties to go, and among the most prestigious, was the CBS Records group, which had been part of the company since 1938. Tisch also shut down in 1986 the
CBS Technology Center in
Stamford, CT, which had started in New York City in the 1930s as
CBS Laboratories and evolved to be the company's technology
R&D unit.
CBS Records group
CBS Records was a record label group (as Columbia Records in the US and Canada) owned by CBS since 1938. CBS sold CBS Records to
Sony in 1988 and the record label company was re-christened
Sony Music Entertainment in 1991, as
Sony had a short term license on the CBS name. Eventually the entity known as Sony Music Entertainment would become
Sony BMG Music Entertainment when Sony and
BMG merged in 2004.
Sony purchased from
EMI its rights to the Columbia Records name outside the US, Canada and Japan. Sony BMG now uses Columbia Records as a label name in all countries except Japan.
CBS Corporation revived
CBS Records in 2006.
CBS Musical Instruments division
Forming the CBS Musical Instruments division, the company also acquired
Steinway pianos,
Gemeinhardt flutes,
Lyon & Healy harps,
Rodgers (institutional) organs,
Gulbransen home organs, Electro-Music Inc. (
Leslie speakers), and
Rogers drums. The last musical purchase was the 1981 acquisition of the assets of then-bankrupt
Arp Instruments, developer of electronic
synthesizers.
Between
1965 and
1985 the quality of Fender guitars and amplifiers declined significantly. Encouraged by outraged Fender fans, CBS Musical Instruments division executives executed a leveraged buyout in 1985 and created
FMIC, the Fender Musical Instrument Corporation. At the same time, CBS divested itself of Rodgers, along with Steinway and Gemeinhardt, all of which were purchased by Steinway Musical Properties. The other musical instruments properties were also liquidated.
Film production
It made a brief, unsuccessful move into film production in the late 1960s, creating
Cinema Center Films. This profit-free unit was shut down in 1972, today the distribution rights to the Cinema Center library rest with Paramount Pictures for home video (via
CBS DVD) and theatrical release, and with CBS Paramount Television for TV distribution (most other ancillary rights remain with CBS).
Yet ten years later, CBS was talked into another try at Hollywood, in a joint venture with
Columbia Pictures and
HBO called
Tri-Star Pictures.
Home video
CBS entered into the home video market, when joined with MGM to form MGM/CBS Home Video in 1978, but the joint venture was broken by 1983. CBS joined another studio:
20th Century Fox, to form
CBS/Fox Video. CBS's duty was to release some of the movies by Tri-Star under the CBS-
FOX Home Video label.
Gabriel Toys
CBS entered the video game market briefly, through its acquisition of Gabriel Toys, publishing several arcade adaptations and original titles for the
Atari 2600 and other consoles and computers. CBS later sold Gabriel Toys to
View-Master.
New owners
By the early 1990s, profits had fallen as a result of competition from cable companies, video rentals, and the high cost of programming. CBS ratings were acceptable, but the network struggled with an image of stodginess. Laurence Tisch lost interest and sought a new buyer.
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
In 1995,
Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired CBS for $5.4 billion. As one of the major broadcasting group owners of commercial radio and television stations (as Group W) since 1920, Westinghouse sought to transition from a station operator into a major media company with its purchase of CBS. This was followed in 1997 with the $4.9-billion purchase of
Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, owner of more than 150 radio stations. Also that year, Westinghouse acquired two cable channels, Gaylord's The Nashville Network (TNN), (now
Spike TV), and
Country Music Television (CMT). Following the Infinity purchase, the remains of the CBS Radio network was handed to Infinity 's
Westwood One subsidiary. CBS also owned CBS Telenoticias, a Spanish-language news network.
Still more activity in the busy year of 1997: Westinghouse changed its name to CBS Corporation, and corporate headquarters were moved from
Pittsburgh to New York. And to underline the change in emphasis, all non-entertainment assets were put up for sale. Another 90 radio stations were added to Infinity's portfolio in 1998 with the acquisition of American Radio Systems Corporation for $2.6 billion.
A year later CBS paid $2.5 billion to acquire
King World Productions, a television syndication company whose programs include ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show'' and ''
Wheel of Fortune''. By 1999, all pre-CBS elements of Westinghouse's industrial past were gone.
Viacom
CBS had become a broadcasting giant and in 1999, entertainment conglomerate
Viacom, a company long-before created to syndicate old CBS series, announced its was taking over CBS in a deal valued at $37 billion. Following completion of this effort in 2000, Viacom was ranked as the second-largest entertainment company in the world.
CBS Corporation and CBS Studios
Having assembled all the elements of a communications empire,
Viacom found that the promised synergy was not there, and at the end of 2005 it split itself in two. CBS became the center of a new company,
CBS Corporation, which included the broadcasting elements, Paramount Television's production operations (renamed
CBS Paramount Television), Viacom Outdoor
advertising (renamed
CBS Outdoor),
Showtime,
Simon & Schuster, and
Paramount Parks, which the company sold in May 2006.
The second company, keeping the Viacom name, kept Paramount Pictures (ironically a former share holder in CBS, see above, also owned a stake in the
DuMont Television Network, whose Pittsburgh O&O is now CBS-owned
KDKA-TV), assorted MTV Networks, BET, and, until May 2007,
Famous Music, which was sold to
Sony-ATV Music Publishing.
As a result of the aforementioned Viacom/CBS corporate split, as well as other acquisitions over recent years, CBS (under the moniker CBS Studios) owns a massive television library spanning over six decades, including ''
I Love Lucy'', ''
The Twilight Zone'', ''
The Honeymooners'', ''
Hawaii Five-O'', ''
Gunsmoke'', ''
The Fugitive'', ''
Little House on the Prairie'', ''
Star Trek'', ''
The Brady Bunch'', and '', among others.
Both CBS Corporation and the new Viacom are still owned by Sumner Redstone's company, National Amusements.
Corporate tidbits
A.C. Nielsen estimated in 2003 that CBS can be seen in 96.98% of all American households, reaching 103,421,270 homes in the United States. CBS has 204 VHF and UHF affiliated stations in the U.S. and U.S. possessions. CBS is currently the most watched television network in the United States, with the prime draws being the '' and ''
Survivor'' franchises.
Logos
CBS unveiled its
Eye Device
logo on
October 17,
1951. Prior to that, from the 1940s through 1951, CBS Television used an oval spotlight on the block letters C-B-S. See an illustration of this early logo at http://www.pharis-video.com/cbs-1949.jpg The Eye device was conceived by
William Golden based on a
Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign as well as a
Shaker drawing. First drawn by graphic artist
Kurt Weihs, it made its broadcasting debut on
October 20,
1951. The following season, as
Golden prepared a new
ident, CBS President
Frank Stanton insisted on keeping the Eye device and using it as much as possible.
An example of CBS Television Network's imaging (and the distinction between the television and radio networks) may be seen in a video of the
Jack Benny Program (undated) which aired on the television network. The video appears to be converted from
kinescope, and "unscoped" or unedited. One sees the program as very nearly one would have seen it on live television.
Don Wilson is the program announcer, but also voices a promo for "Private Secretary", which alternated weekly with
Jack Benny on the television network schedule. Benny continued to appear on CBS radio and television at that time, and Wilson makes a promo announcement at the end of the broadcast for Benny's radio program on the
CBS Radio Network. The program closes with the "CBS Television Network" ID slide (the "CBS eye" over a field of clouds with the words "
CBS Television Network" superimposed over the eye). There is, however, no voiceover accompanying the ID slide. It is unclear whether it was simply absent from the recording or never originally broadcast. See the video at
The Jack Benny Program
The CBS eye is now an American icon. While the symbol's settings have changed, the Eye device itself has not been redesigned in its entire history. It has frequently been copied or borrowed by television networks around the world, a notable example being
Associated TeleVision in the
United Kingdom. The logo is alternately known as the ''Eyemark'', which was also the name of CBS's domestic and international
syndication divisions in the mid to late 90s before the King World acquisition and Viacom merger.
Programming
CBS presently operates on an 87½-hour regular network programming schedule. It provides 22 hours of
prime time programming to affiliated stations: 8-11pm Monday to Saturday (all times ET/PT) and 7-11pm on Sundays. Programming will also be provided 11am-4pm weekdays (''
The Price Is Right'' and soaps ''
The Young and the Restless'', ''
The Bold and the Beautiful'', ''
As the World Turns'' and ''
Guiding Light''); 7-9am weekdays and Saturdays (''
The Early Show''); ''
CBS News Sunday Morning'', nightly editions of the ''CBS Evening News'', the Sunday political talk show ''
Face the Nation'', a 2½-hour early morning news program ''
Up to the Minute'' and ''
CBS Morning News''; the late night talk shows ''
Late Show with David Letterman'' and ''
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson''; and a three-hour Saturday morning live-action/animation block under the name ''
KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS''.
In addition, sports programming routinely appears on the weekends, although with a somewhat unpredictable schedule (mostly between noon and 7 pm ET).
Prime time
Returning comedies are in '
red'; new comedies are in '
pink'; returning dramas are in '
green'; new dramas are in '
blue'; returning reality shows are in '
yellow'; new reality shows are in '
gold'; new game shows are in '
beige'; news programming is in '
brown'.
All times are
Eastern and
Pacific (subtract one hour for
Central and
Mountain time).
[3]
★ The weeknight late night schedule comprises talk shows ''
Late Show with David Letterman'' followed by ''
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'', and the
CBS News overnight news program, ''
Up To The Minute''.
Fall 2007
CBS's Fall upfront presentation
★ Returning midseason shows are reality competition ''
The Amazing Race'', comedy ''
The New Adventures of Old Christine'', and drama ''
Jericho''
★
† - Sunday lineup in the East and Central time zones may be delayed by sports programming (
NFL and golf) ending late. Unlike FOX, CBS does not usually preempt programming for late-ending sports events, instead delaying the entire schedule for overruns.
Daytime
As of 2007, CBS airs four daytime soap operas each weekday: ''
The Young and the Restless'', ''
The Bold and the Beautiful'', ''
As the World Turns'', and ''
Guiding Light''. While most CBS affiliates air the soaps in this order, some do not.
CBS' daytime schedule is also the home of the popular long-running game show ''
The Price is Right''. ''The Price is Right'' is notable as the last continuously running daytime game show on network television.
Children's programming
CBS broadcast the live action series
Captain Kangaroo on weekday mornings from 1955 through 1982, and on Saturdays through 1984. From 1971 through 1986, the CBS News department produced one-minute ''
In the News'' segments broadcast between other Saturday morning programs. Otherwise, in regards to children's programming, CBS has aired mostly animated series for kids.
By 2000, CBS began contracting out to other companies to provide programming and material for their Saturday morning schedule, The first of these special blocks was ''The CBS Kids Show'', which featured programming from Canada's
Nelvana studio. It aired on CBS Saturday mornings during 2000 and 2001, with shows like ''
Anatole'', ''
Rescue Heroes'', ''
Flying Rhino Junior High'', etc. It's common phrase was "The CBS Kids Show, Get in the act."
In 2000, CBS's deal with Nelvana ended; the ''CBS Kids Show'' block was replaced with another block of programming from a network which, at the time, was in the same family as CBS -- ''
Nick Jr. on CBS''.
In 2001, CBS began a deal with
Nickelodeon (owned by CBS's former parent company Viacom, which at one time was a subsidiary of CBS) to air its original programming under the banner ''Nick on CBS''. In 2004, CBS changed the lineup by going for the somewhat undercourted preschool market by switching its lineup from programming from Nickelodeon back to
Nick Jr. In 2006, after the Viacom-CBS split (as described above), CBS decided to discontinue the Nick Jr. lineup in favor of a lineup of programs produced by
DiC, as part of a 3-year deal which includes distribution of selected Formula One auto races on tape delay.
[4]
CBS has selected six programs to be broadcast on ''
KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS''. Two are new shows, one aired in syndication in 2005 and three are pre-2006 shows. The schedule was later confirmed
[5] and ''
Madeline'', '' and ''
Trollz'' were selected as the pre-2006 programs to be aired in
September 2006. Complimenting CBS's 2007 line-up will be ''
Care Bears'', ''
Strawberry Shortcake'', and ''Sushi Pack''.
International broadcasts
CBS is not shown outside North and Central America on a channel in its own right. However, CBS News is shown for a few hours a day on satellite channel
Orbit News in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The CBS Evening News is shown in the UK on
Sky News, despite the fact that Sky is part of
News Corporation (owners of
Fox News).
In
Australia,
Network Ten has rights as a CBS affiliate carrying the programs
''Jericho'',
''Dr. Phil'', ''
Late Show with David Letterman'',
''NCIS'' and ''
NUMB3RS'' as well access to stories from ''
60 Minutes''.
In
Bermuda, there is a CBS affiliate owned by the state-run
Bermuda Broadcasting Company using the callsigns
ZBM.
In
Canada, CBS, like all major American TV networks, is carried in the basic program package of all cable and satellite providers. The broadcast is shown exactly the same in
Canada as in the
United States. As well, many Canadians live close enough to a major American city to pick up the over the air broadcast signal of an American CBS affiliate with an antenna.
Criticism
In 1982, the network aired the documentary ''
The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception'', suggesting
General William Westmoreland deliberately misled the public about the
Vietnam War in order to maintain public support. Westmoreland filed a 120 million dollar libel suit that was ultimately settled in exchange for an on-air clarification. However, an internal study found that the documentary had violated CBS News Standards.
[6]
In 2004, the FCC imposed a record $550,000 fine on CBS for its broadcast of a
Super Bowl half-time show (produced by then sister-unit MTV) in which singer
Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed. It was the largest fine ever for a violation of federal decency laws. Following the incident CBS apologized to its viewers and denied foreknowledge of the event, which was broadcast live on TV.
CBS suffered another embarrassment in September of that year, when the network aired a controversial episode of its
newsmagazine, ''
60 Minutes'', which questioned
U.S. President George W. Bush's service in the
National Guard.
[7] Following allegations of
forgery, CBS News admitted that
documents used in the story had not been properly authenticated. The following January, CBS fired four people connected to the preparation of the news-segment.
[8]
In 2006, CBS announced it would air only three of its NFL games per week in high definition. The move created some outrage among fans, with some accusing the network of being "cheap."
[3] ''See main article:
NFL on CBS HDTV coverage''
In 2007, retired Army Major Gen.
John Batiste, consultant to
CBS News, appeared in a political ad for
VoteVets.org critical of President Bush and the war in Iraq.
[9]
Two days later, CBS stated that appearing in the ad violated Batiste's contract with them and the agreement was terminated.
[4]
See also
★
CBS Kids
★
CBS News
★
CBS Sports
★
CBS Television Distribution
★
List of CBS affiliates, arranged by market
★
List of CBS affiliates, arranged by state
★
List of assets owned by CBS
★
List of programs broadcast by CBS
★
List of CBS slogans
★
CBS Mandate
★
CBS Cable, the company's early (and abortive) foray into cable broadcasting.
Notes on sources
★ Auletta, Ken. ''Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way.'' New York: Vintage, 1992.
★ Bagdikian, Ben H. '' The New Media Monopoly''. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.
★ Barnouw, Erik. ''A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States to 1933''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
★ Barnouw, Erik. ''The Golden Web: A History of Broadcasting in the United States, 1933-1953''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.
★ Epstein, Edward J. ''News From Nowhere.''
★ Goldberg, Bernard. ''Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News.'' Washington, D.C.: Regenery, 2002.
★ Robinson, Michael J. and Sheehan, Margaret. ''Over the Wire and On TV: CBS and the UPI Campaign of 1980.'' Russell Sage Foundation, 1980.
★ Matusow, Barbara. ''The Evening Stars''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984.
★ Smith, Sally Bedell. ''In All His Glory, The Life of William S. Paley, the Legendary Tycoon and His Brilliant Circle''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.
★ Paley, William. ''As It Happened, a Memoir''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979.
★ Kisseloff, Jeff. ''The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1920-1961''. New York: Viking, 1995.
References
1. Westinghouse Bids for Role In the Remake : CBS Deal Advances TV's Global Reach
2. According to a New York Times piece on November 9, 1950, "the first local public demonstrations of color television will be initiated Tuesday by the Columbia Broadcasting System. Ten color receivers are being installed on the ground floor of the former Tiffany building at 401 Fifth Avenue, near Thirty-seventh Street, where several hundred persons can be accommodated for each presentation."
3. CBS: The 'C' Stands For Cheap
4. CBS News Asks Batiste To Step Down As Consultant Brian Montopoli
External links
★
CBS website
★
CBS Corporation
★
History of the CBS Eye
★
Columbia Broadcasting System page on museum.tv
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