Dan Rather is suing his former network over the aftermath of his flawed report on President Bush's National Guard service.The September 2004 story produced for the newsmagazine 60 Minutes II led to Rather’s departure from the CBS Evening News anchor chair in March 2005. Now working at the cable outlet HDNet, Rather has filed a $70 million lawsuit, which names CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone and former CBS News president Andrew Heyward as plaintiffs. The suit claims the network violated his contract by not giving him a more prominent role on 60 Minutes.Rather’s last deal with CBS News stipulated that when he left the Evening News anchor chair he would be the lead correspondent for 60 Minutes II. Once that program was canceled, Rather joined the signature edition of the newsmagazine on Sunday, where he was to be a regular correspondent. The lawsuit says he was used far less than the other correspondents on the broadcast.The suit al...
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3:53: CBS is young and hip — and the net's got a DJ spinning records in front of the stage to prove it!3:57: You haven't lived until you've heard CBS' NFL theme song remixed with "We Will Rock You."4:01: Showtime! Oooh, we're starting with a musical number! A reggae group is welcoming us with a song about the Upfronts.4:05: Ladies and gentleman, make way for King Les Moonves!!4:10: "For the fifth year in a row, CBS is America's most watched network," Les proclaims. So humble, that one. 4:15: Les introduces a YouTube clip that a fan compiled featuring David Caruso's endless one-liners from CSI: Miami. Funny stuff. — Michael AusielloFor more of Mike's minute-by-minute coverage of the upfront presentation, click here.
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It isn't enough for CBS to be the most-watched network. At the presentation of its new fall schedule, network execs announced they want their shows to be talked about, too.It's a new version of an old tune. For years, CBS has had the largest number of viewers, but many of them were old and not as desirable to advertisers. Recently, the network has gotten much more competitive for the 18-to-49-year-old crowd that Madison Avenue pays most for. Yet shows such as ABC's Ugly Betty get a lot more ink and watercooler chatter than the higher-rated Two and a Half Men or Survivor (CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler drove the point home to the audience at Carnegie Hall by citing how Betty's ratings have dropped 40 percent since its premiere).With a solid foundation of dependable hits, Tassler says this is the year she can afford to take a few programming risks to improve her share of buzz. Even if CBS' new shows fail, its regular program lineup will deliver ratings close to what it did t...
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3:46: CBS' Upfront starts in 15 minutes and I'm lost. Does anyone out there know how to get to Carnegie Hall!? Ba-dum-bum. 3:48: I've got an awesome seat right in the center. Some might say I have a birds-eye view of the stage. Ba-dum-bum.3:53: CBS is young and hip — and they've got a DJ spinning records in front of the stage to prove it!3:57: You haven't lived until you've heard CBS' NFL theme song remixed with "We Will Rock You."4:00: Showtime! Oooh, we're starting with a musical number! A reggae group is welcoming us with a song about the upfronts.4:05: Ladies and gentleman, make way for King Les Moonves!!4:10: "For the fifth year in a row, CBS is America's most watched network," Les proclaims. So humble, that one. 4:15: Moonves introduces a YouTube clip that a fan compiled featuring David Caruso's endless one-liners from CSI: Miami. Funny stuff.4:16: Someone in row 12 smuggled a freakin' laptop in here! No fair! She should be forced to Blackberry-blog like me! (It's not eas...
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A new memoir from former CBS News reporter Bernard Goldberg takes big shots at network big shots Les Moonves and Katie Couric. According to the New York Post, his book Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right mauls CEO Moonves for dubbing Couric "the Jackie Robinson of network news" when she became the first solo woman anchor of an evening newscast. After detailing Robinson's battles with bigotry, Goldberg's book lists the "indignities" Couric must contend with, such as "that pesky $15 million salary," "nasty limousines that whisk her about town," road-trip stays at "the most luxurious suites at only the finest hotels," and "those dreadful Park Avenue A-list parties." Reps for neither CBS nor Couric had comment.
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