CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an
American commercial broadcast television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
and
radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many ( simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio ( duplex communication) typ ...
serving as the
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the f ...
property of the
CBS Entertainment Group
The following is a list of major assets that are owned by Paramount Global.
Paramount Pictures Corporation (Film)
* Paramount Pictures
** Paramount Home Entertainment
** Paramount Television Studios
** Paramount Pictures International
** Param ...
division of
Paramount Global
Paramount Global (Trade name, doing business as Paramount) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquar ...
.
Its headquarters is at the
CBS Building
The CBS Building, also known as Black Rock, is the headquarters of the CBS broadcasting network at 51 West 52nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 38-story, building, the only skyscraper designed by Eero Saar ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
. It has major production facilities and operations at the
CBS Broadcast Center
The CBS Broadcast Center is a television and radio production facility located in New York City. It is CBS's main East Coast production hub, similar to CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles as the West Coast hub. The Broadcast Center is one of tw ...
and the headquarters of owner Paramount Global at
One Astor Plaza
One Astor Plaza, also known as 1515 Broadway and formerly the W. T. Grant Building, is a 54-story office building on Times Square in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Der Scutt of Ely J. Kahn & Jacobs, the ...
(both also in that city) and
Television City
Television City, alternatively CBS Television City, is an American television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of Fairfax Avenue. Designed by architect William Pereira and ...
and the
CBS Studio Center
Radford Studio Center, alternatively CBS Studio Center, is a television and film studio located in the Studio City district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. The lot has 18 sound stages from , of office space, and 223 dressing rooms ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
. It is also sometimes referred to as the Eye Network in reference to the company's trademark symbol which has been in use since 1951. It has also been called the Tiffany Network which alludes to the perceived high quality of its programming during the tenure of
William S. Paley. It can also refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of
color television
Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white ...
, which were held in the former
Tiffany and Company Building
The Tiffany and Company Building, also known as the Tiffany Building and 401 Fifth Avenue, is an eight-story commercial building at Fifth Avenue and 37th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The structure was designe ...
in New York City in 1950.
History
The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc., a radio network founded in Chicago by New York City
talent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or s ...
Arthur Judson
Arthur Leon Judson (February 17, 1881 – January 28, 1975) was an artists' manager who also managed the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra and was also the founder of CBS. He co-founded the Handel Society of New York with entrepre ...
in January 1927. In April of that year, the Columbia Phonograph Company, parent of the
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
record label, invested in the network, resulting in its rebranding as the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (CPBS).
In early 1928, Judson and Columbia sold the network to Isaac and Leon Levy, two brothers who owned
WCAU, the network's Philadelphia affiliate, as well as their partner Jerome Louchheim. They installed Paley, an in-law of the Levys, as president of the network. With the Columbia record label out of ownership, Paley rebranded the network as the Columbia Broadcasting System. By September 1928, Paley became the network's majority owner with 51 percent of the business.
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
then acquired the other 49 percent of CBS in 1929, but the
Great Depression eventually forced the studio to sell its shares back to the network in 1932.
CBS would then remain primarily an independent company throughout the next 63 years. Under Paley's guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, and eventually one of the
Big Three American broadcast television networks. CBS ventured and expanded its horizons through television starting in the 1940s, spinning-off its broadcast syndication division
Viacom to a separate company in 1971.
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" i ...
then purchased CBS in 1995 and rebranded itself as CBS Corporation. In 1974, CBS dropped its original full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. The
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" i ...
acquired the network in 1995, renaming its corporate entity to its current name CBS Broadcasting, Inc. two years later, and eventually adopted the name of the company it had acquired to become
CBS Corporation
The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, an ...
. In 2000, CBS came under the control of
the original incarnation of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In 2005, Viacom split itself into two separate companies and re-established CBS Corporation through the
spin-off
Spin-off may refer to:
*Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work
*Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity
* Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...
of its broadcast television, radio and select
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
and non-broadcasting assets, with the CBS network at its core. CBS Corporation was controlled by
Sumner Redstone through
National Amusements
National Amusements, Inc. is an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts. It is the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global.
History
The ...
, which also controlled
the second incarnation of Viacom until December 4, 2019, when the two separated companies
agreed to re-merge to become ViacomCBS. Following the sale, CBS and its other broadcasting and entertainment assets were reorganized into a new division, CBS Entertainment Group.
CBS operated the
CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broa ...
network until 2017, when it sold its radio division to Entercom (now known as
Audacy, Inc. since 2021). Before this, CBS Radio mainly provided news and features content for its portfolio of
owned-and-operated radio stations in large and mid-sized markets, as well as its
affiliated
Affiliation or affiliate may refer to:
* Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law
* Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship
* Affiliate marketing
* Affiliate network or affiliation pla ...
radio stations in various other markets. While CBS Corporation common shareholders (i.e. not the multiple-voting shares held by National Amusements) were given a 72% stake in the combined Entercom, CBS no longer owns or operates any radio stations directly; however, it still provides radio news broadcasts to its radio affiliates and to the new owners of its former radio stations, and licenses the rights to use CBS trademarks under a long-term contract. The television network has over 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated television stations throughout the United States, some also available in Canada via pay-television providers or in
border areas over-the-air. CBS was ranked 197th on the 2018
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by '' Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
of the largest American corporations by revenue.
[ ]
Programming
, CBS provides hours of regularly scheduled network programming each week. The network provides 22 hours of primetime programming to affiliated stations Monday through Saturday from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and Sunday from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time (7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Sunday in Central/Mountain time).
The network also provides daytime programming from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific weekdays (subtract 1 hour for all other time zones), including a half-hour break for local news and features the game shows ''
The Price Is Right
''The Price Is Right'' is a television game show franchise created by Bob Stewart, originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman; currently it is produced and owned by Fremantle. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also i ...
'' and ''
Let's Make a Deal
''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is an American television musical comedy variety-game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created an ...
'',
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s ''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City ...
'' and ''
The Bold and the Beautiful
''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (often referred to as ''B&B'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered on March 23, 1987, as a sister show to the Bells' other soap opera ''The Yo ...
'', and talk show ''
The Talk''.
CBS News programming includes ''
CBS Mornings'' from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. weekdays and ''
CBS Saturday Morning'' in the same time period on Saturdays; nightly editions of ''
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature s ...
''; the Sunday political talk show ''
Face the Nation
''Face the Nation'' is a weekly news and morning public affairs program airing Sundays on the CBS radio and television network. Created by Frank Stanton in 1954, ''Face the Nation'' is one of the longest-running news programs in the history ...
''; early morning news program ''
CBS Morning News''; and the newsmagazines ''
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique st ...
'', ''
CBS News Sunday Morning'', and ''
48 Hours''. On weeknights, CBS airs the talk shows ''
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' and ''
The Late Late Show with James Corden''.
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street (Manhattan), 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS ...
programming is also provided most weekend afternoons. Due to the unpredictable length of sporting events, CBS occasionally delays scheduled primetime programs to allow the programs to air in their entirety, a practice most commonly seen with
Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football may refer to:
* ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games by NBC since 2006
* ''ESPN Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games from 1987 to 2005 by ESPN
* ...
. In addition to rights to sports events from major sports organizations such as the
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
,
PGA PGA is an acronym or initialism that may stand for:
Aviation
* IATA code for Page Municipal Airport, Coconino County, Arizona
* ICAO designator for Portugália, regional airline based in Lisbon, Portugal
* Abbreviation for Prince George Airport ...
, and
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...
, CBS broadcasts the ''
CBS Sports Spectacular'', a sports
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a di ...
which fills certain weekend afternoon time slots prior to (or in some cases, in lieu of) a major sporting event.
Daytime
CBS's daytime schedule is the longest among the major networks at hours. It is the home of the long-running game show ''
The Price Is Right
''The Price Is Right'' is a television game show franchise created by Bob Stewart, originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman; currently it is produced and owned by Fremantle. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also i ...
'', which began production in 1972 and is the longest continuously running daytime game show on network television. After being hosted by
Bob Barker
Robert William Barker (born December 12, 1923) is an American retired television game show host. He is known for hosting CBS's ''The Price Is Right'' from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American telev ...
for 35 years, the show has been hosted since 2007 by actor and comedian
Drew Carey. The network is also home to the current incarnation of ''
Let's Make a Deal
''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is an American television musical comedy variety-game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created an ...
'', hosted by singer and comedian
Wayne Brady
Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American television personality, comedian, actor, and singer. He is a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' He was the host ...
.
CBS is the only commercial broadcast network that continues to broadcast daytime game shows. Notable game shows that once aired as part of the network's daytime lineup include ''
Match Game'', ''
Tattletales'', ''
The $10/25,000 Pyramid'', ''
Press Your Luck
''Press Your Luck'' is an American television game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. It premiered on CBS daytime on September 19, 1983, and ended on September 26, 1986. The format is a retooling of an earlier Carruthers producti ...
'', ''
Card Sharks
''Card Sharks'' is an American television game show. It was created by Chester Feldman for Mark Goodson- Bill Todman Productions. The game features two contestants who attempt to predict the outcome of survey questions to gain control of a r ...
'', ''
Family Feud
''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. It features two families who compete to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes.
The show has had three separate runs, the ...
'', and ''
Wheel of Fortune''. Past game shows that have had both daytime and prime time runs on the network include ''
Beat the Clock'' and ''
To Tell the Truth''. Two long-running primetime-only games were the panel shows ''
What's My Line?
''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity paneli ...
'' and ''
I've Got a Secret''.
The network is also home to ''
The Talk'', a panel talk show similar in format to ABC's ''
The View''. It debuted in October 2010. As of the show's thirteenth season, the panel features
Sheryl Underwood,
Amanda Kloots,
Jerry O'Connell,
Akbar Gbaja-Biamila and
Natalie Morales who serves as moderator.
CBS Daytime airs two daytime soap operas each weekday: the hour-long series ''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City ...
'', which debuted in 1973, and the half-hour series ''
The Bold and the Beautiful
''The Bold and the Beautiful'' (often referred to as ''B&B'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered on March 23, 1987, as a sister show to the Bells' other soap opera ''The Yo ...
'', which debuted in 1987. CBS has long aired the most soap operas out of the
Big Three networks, carrying hours of soaps on its daytime lineup from 1977 to 2009, and still retains the longest daily schedule. Other than ''Guiding Light'', notable daytime soap operas that once aired on CBS include ''
As the World Turns
''As the World Turns'' (often abbreviated as ''ATWT'') is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS for 54 years from April 2, 1956, to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created ''As the World Turns'' as a sister show to her other soa ...
'', ''
Love of Life'', ''
Search for Tomorrow'', ''
The Secret Storm'', ''
The Edge of Night'', and ''
Capitol
A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity.
Specific capitols include:
* United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
* Numerou ...
''.
Children's programming
CBS broadcast the live-action series ''
Captain Kangaroo'' on weekday mornings from 1955 to 1982, and on Saturdays until 1984. From 1971 to 1986, CBS News produced a series of one-minute segments titled ''
In the News'', which aired between other Saturday morning programs. Otherwise, CBS's children's programming has mostly focused on animated series such as reruns of ''
Mighty Mouse'', ''
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.[ ...]
'', and ''
Tom and Jerry
''Tom and Jerry'' is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on the ...
'' cartoons, as well as ''
Scooby-Doo
''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are ...
'', ''
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids'', ''
Jim Henson's Muppet Babies'', ''
Garfield and Friends'', and ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Miche ...
''. In 1997, CBS premiered ''
Wheel 2000'', a children's version of the syndicated game show ''
Wheel of Fortune'' which aired simultaneously on the
Game Show Network
Game Show Network (GSN) is an American basic cable channel owned by Sony Pictures Television. The channel's programming is primarily dedicated to game shows, including reruns of acquired game shows, along with new, first-run original and reviv ...
.
In September 1998, CBS began contracting the time period out to other companies to provide programming and material for its Saturday morning schedule. The first of these outsourced blocks was the ''
CBS Kidshow
The ''CBS Kidshow'' (originally known as ''Think CBS Kids'') was an American Saturday morning children's programming block that aired on CBS from September 13, 1997 to September 9, 2000. Originally a network-programmed block, Nelvana took ov ...
'', which ran until 2000 and featured programming from Canadian studio
Nelvana
Nelvana Enterprises, Inc. (; previously known as Nelvana Limited, sometimes known as Nelvana Animation and simply Nelvana or Nelvana Communications) is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment company owned by Corus Entertainment. Found ...
such as ''
Anatole'', ''
Mythic Warriors'', ''
Rescue Heroes'', and ''
Flying Rhino Junior High''.
After its agreement with Nelvana ended, the network then entered into a deal with
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
to air programming from its
Nick Jr. block beginning in September 2000, under the banner
Nick Jr. on CBS.
By the time of the deal, Nickelodeon and CBS were corporate sisters through the latter's then parent company Viacom as a result of its 2000 merger with CBS Corporation. From 2002 to 2005, live-action and animated Nickelodeon series aimed at older children also aired as part of the block under the name
Nick on CBS
''Nick on CBS'' (also known as ''Nickelodeon on CBS'') was an American Saturday morning children's programming block featuring programming from Nickelodeon that ran on CBS from September 16, 2000, to September 9, 2006. It initially aired progr ...
.
Following the Viacom-CBS split, the network decided to discontinue the Nickelodeon content deal. In March 2006, CBS entered into a three-year agreement with
DIC Entertainment
DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production comp ...
, which was acquired later that year by the
Cookie Jar Group, to program the Saturday morning time slot as part of a deal that included distribution of select
tape-delayed
In radio and television, broadcast delay is an intentional delay when broadcasting live material, technically referred to as a deferred live. Such a delay may be to prevent mistakes or unacceptable content from being broadcast. Longer delays las ...
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World D