Just how competitive is CBS CEO and President Leslie Moonves? Locked in a tight race with NBC for the November sweeps, he overhauled the lineup on the last day of the month, inserting special episodes of two of his most popular shows, Survivor and CSI. In the end, he just edged past his rival. "Anyone who's ever succeeded in one of these network jobs is competitive," says Moonves. "If you're not, you should be in another job."
The 53-year-old Moonves, a onetime actor, certainly seems to be in the right place. At the midway point of the TV season, CBS is averaging 12.9 million viewers a night, top among the networks and the only one of the four largest to have increased its audience from last year. It has this year's two most popular new shows: Still Standing and CSI: Miami. That's a huge change from 1995, when Moonves joined CBS from Warner Bros. TV, where as president he had greenlighted such hits as Friends and ER. Then decried as the "Depends network," CBS was a distant third in the ratings.
Moonves, who sits on the board of parent company Viacom Inc. (VIA
), still takes meetings and picks casts. It was he who persuaded actress Jami Gertz, an old friend, to take the lead role in Still Standing. But not everything in Moonves' world is running smoothly: CBS's sister network UPN, which he has overseen for the past year, continues to lose viewers. To lure viewers, Moonves will soon air Supermodel, a contest show hosted by Tyra Banks. Stay tuned.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
-- Developed three of the top four new shows--CSI: Miami, Still Standing, and Without a Trace
-- Helped CBS become only major network to increase viewership this year, by 1%, to 12.9 million
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