MOONVES ANNOUNCES PROMOTION OF KEY EXECUTIVES
TO NEW CBS AND PARAMOUNT WEST-COAST MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
NANCY TELLEM TO PRESIDENT,
CBS PARAMOUNT NETWORK TELEVISION ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
NINA TASSLER TO PRESIDENT, CBS ENTERTAINMENT
DAVID STAPF TO PRESIDENT, PARAMOUNT NETWORK TELEVISION
KELLY KAHL TO SENIOR EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF CBS,
WITH LARGER RESPONSIBILITIES GROUPWIDE
MARIA CRENNA TO EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
PARAMOUNT NETWORK TELEVISION
PARAMOUNT NETWORK TELEVISION AND CBS PRODUCTIONS COMBINE
TO CREATE LARGER PROGRAMMING ENTITY;
NEW STUDIO TO SERVE ENTIRE BROADCASTING
AND CABLE NETWORK MARKETPLACE
LOS ANGELES -- Leslie Moonves, Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of Viacom and Chairman of CBS, announced today the promotion of key executives to new roles at CBS and Paramount Network Television, creating a new management structure that will transform CBS west-coast programming operations.
�We�ve got the greatest group of assets ever assembled to serve television viewers across all platforms, and this reorganization helps us make the most of that extraordinary portfolio of properties,� said Moonves. �The good news is that we�ve got the best people in the business to lead us into the future.�
Moonves outlined a new management structure that will lead the CBS Television Network�s west-coast programming operations and the efforts of both CBS Productions and the Paramount Network Television studio, which supply CBS, UPN and a host of other broadcast and cable networks with a range of successful programming.
Nancy Tellem, who has served as President of Entertainment during CBS�s rise to prominence, has been promoted to the newly-created post of President, CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group. In this position, Tellem will oversee operations at CBS Entertainment and Paramount Network Television, including development, programming, production, legal and business affairs. In her former role, which she assumed in August 1998, she oversaw the development of the dramas, comedies and reality series that have propelled CBS into the most-watched Network in America, including the CSI franchise, SURVIVOR, the new hit comedy TWO AND A HALF MEN, as well as many others. In her new role, she will continue to report to Moonves.
�Nancy Tellem is one of the very best strategic, business and programming minds in our industry,� said Moonves. �She is also a peerless manager of people, and one of the most-respected and well-liked executives in this business. She has an intuitive understanding of how the creative and business process work together to create success, and has been one of the main factors that has made our turnaround at CBS a reality. Her knowledge of our organization, her talents as a judge of quality in programming, her ability to work with all types of creative people, and her experience in every aspect of the media business are huge assets for our Company as we grow.�
Moonves continued: �Nancy has been my friend and partner for the greater part of my professional career and I can�t imagine tackling all the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead without her at my side.�
At the same time, Nina Tassler has been promoted to succeed Tellem as President of CBS Entertainment. Prior to this, Tassler was head of drama development for the Network.
Throughout her tenure, CBS has consistently developed the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful dramas. She was instrumental in the development of television�s most-watched program, CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, as well as CSI: MIAMI, CSI: NY, WITHOUT A TRACE and JUDGING AMY. This past season, she ushered in the top two new dramas with COLD CASE and NCIS, as well as the Emmy-nominated and widely hailed JOAN OF ARCADIA. Those series, combined with the ongoing strength of the Network's returning programs, helped CBS win the season by more than two million viewers.
In her new post, Tassler will oversee Network programming for prime time, late night and daytime, as well as program development for all genres, including comedy, drama, reality, specials, movies and mini-series. She will report to Nancy Tellem.
�Due to her incredible track record, Nina Tassler is widely regarded as the best development executive in television today,� said Moonves. �She has a deep knowledge of the television audience and CBS�s viewers in particular. She has been well prepared for this important role and I am confident that under her leadership CBS Entertainment will continue its spectacular record of growth and achievement.�
In the reorganization, CBS Productions, which has been instrumental in the production of virtually every hit program on the Network, will be merged into Paramount Network Television. The new entity will be based at the Paramount Studios and will keep the Paramount name, although the CBS Productions brand will still be utilized for certain programs.
Leading that combined operation will be David Stapf, formerly head of Current Programming for CBS Entertainment, who has been named President of the new, combined Paramount Network Television. Stapf has served as head of current programs at CBS since July 1999, overseeing prime time series activities for CBS's top rated roster of entertainment programming. In that role, he has been the executive who has shepherded the shows that have made CBS the #1 Network, working with each program�s producers to maintain the quality and direction of established comedies and dramas like EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, THE KING OF QUEENS and JUDGING AMY, as well as playing a key role in establishing new hits like CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, CSI: MIAMI, WITHOUT A TRACE and TWO AND A HALF MEN, shows that have transformed the Network.
In his new position, Stapf takes the reigns of the CBS and Paramount television studios� program development, production and sales efforts that supply the broadcast, basic and pay cable markets. He will report to Tellem.
�David is one of the most gifted programming executives in the business,� said Moonves. �He is most adept at understanding and dealing with the talented people who develop, produce, write and act in the programs that serve our many audiences. I look forward to working with him, as we have so closely together in the past, to make the most of the great opportunities created by the combination of these two organizations.�
Stapf will take charge of a powerhouse programming division. CBS Productions has been CBS Entertainment's in-house production company, developing and producing primetime programming owned or co-owned by CBS. In the upcoming 2004-05 season, CBS Productions placed 14 series on the primetime schedules of CBS and sister network UPN. Paramount Network Television is one of the industry's leading producers of network television programming as well. For the 2004-05 television season, the Division produces roughly 14 series, comedies and dramas for CBS, UPN, ABC, NBC, FOX, HBO and USA Network.
Also at the new Paramount Network Television, Maria Crenna, formerly Executive Vice President of CBS Productions, has been promoted to the position of Executive Vice President of the larger television programming organization. In that role, she will oversee the studio�s departments dedicated to drama and comedy development and support studio senior management in all strategic objectives. While at CBS Productions, Crenna helped build the small, in-house unit into one of the top suppliers of prime time programming in the industry. She will report to Stapf.
�Maria�s depth of experience and wide range of talent in all creative affairs has led to success wherever she has been,� said Tellem. �Her skills were clearly on display at CBS Productions where she played an important part in the small unit making a big impact in the television business. Working together, David and Maria will create an unbeatable team to lead the new combined programming powerhouse.�
Moonves noted that the new Paramount Network Television will continue its tradition of supplying the highest quality programming to all cable and broadcast networks, not simply those owned by CBS and its sister Viacom divisions.
In a move that affects the CBS organization nationwide, Kelly Kahl has been named Senior Executive Vice President of Programming Operations. In that role, Kahl will oversee the coordination of all CBS programming, with particular attention to how all parts of the entire CBS business unit interact to serve the audience and maximize business opportunities. He will continue to have primary responsibility for program planning and scheduling of both the CBS and UPN Television Networks, while taking on the added responsibilities of supervising coordination between CBS and UPN's programming divisions and the networks' respective operations in sales, marketing, affiliate relations, research and with the Viacom Television Station Group. Kahl will continue to report to Moonves, and will work closely with the CBS Entertainment division, CBS News and CBS Sports.
�Kelly is the consummate network programmer and one of the smartest business minds in our industry,� said Moonves. �There is nobody better at intuiting where a program will prosper, and over the last few years he has been an important factor in our success in every part of the Network. He has already been acting as the liaison between many of our operations in his role as scheduling and planning chief. This well-deserved promotion solidifies that role and gives him additional responsibilities throughout the entire portfolio of the businesses we now operate.�
Moonves added, �I have worked with all of these superb executives since our days together at Warner Bros. We implicitly know how each other thinks and operates � and how to make programs that people want to watch. In the end, that�s what television is all about, and I look forward to working with all of these longtime friends and colleagues as we move this great organization forward.�
As a result of the merging of these two programming units, Garry Hart, who joined the Company in 1993 as President of Paramount Network Television and has been President of Paramount Television Productions since 2002, will leave that post, after helping to effect an orderly transition. He will then become an independent producer developing programming for Paramount Network Television.
�Paramount has been a great and proud name in television for a long time, and Garry has been an important part of its success for the last decade,� said Moonves. �He�s a true professional, and everyone at Viacom, Paramount and CBS owe him a sincere vote of thanks for his significant contributions to the reputation and performance of one of the media industry�s great programming companies. We look forward to a long, mutually-beneficial relationship with Garry, as he uses his significant creativity and knowledge of the television audience to develop successful projects for the studio for many years to come.�
Moonves noted that in this reorganization, Spelling Television will remain an independent production entity, reporting directly to him.
Finally, Moonves stated that he will continue to serve in his role as Chairman of CBS.
Continuing in their direct reporting relationship with Moonves are the various CBS divisions and the departments that serve them including, the new CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, the Presidents of News and Sports and all the departments that serve the larger organization, including Sales, Marketing, Communications, Research and Human Resources, among others.
This reorganization does not affect the syndication operations of King World and Paramount Domestic Television, which will continue to be run by Roger King and Joel Berman, respectively, each of whom reports to Moonves, or CBS Paramount International Television, under the leadership of Armando Nu�ez, Jr.
Nor does this announcement affect the programming operations of UPN under the leadership of UPN Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff, who will continue to report directly to Moonves.
The CBS business unit is comprised of the CBS Television Network, which serves more than 200 owned and affiliated stations reaching virtually every television home in the United States; CBS programming entities CBS Entertainment, CBS Sports and CBS News; CBS Enterprises, which encompasses King World Productions and the newly-created CBS Paramount International Television, which it jointly manages with Paramount Domestic Television, a leading supplier of first-run and syndicated television programming; the Viacom Television Stations Group, consisting of 39 stations, including 20 CBS, 18 UPN and one independent station; Infinity Broadcasting, owner and operator of some 185 radio stations, the majority of which are in the Top 50 markets; Paramount Network Television, now merged with the former CBS Productions, is the leading supplier of original series for network and cable television; and Viacom Outdoor, the largest outdoor media company in North America.
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