Word: cbs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Despite last week's severe setback, Turner seemed determined not to give up. He talked of raising enough financing to make a cash bid for CBS or perhaps staging a proxy fight for control of the network at its annual meeting next spring. Meanwhile, reports at week's end suggested that the broadcast maverick may already have his eyes on another takeover target: entertainment giant MGM-UA. ENTERTAINMENT Ratin' Rock 'n' Roll...
...temple of broadcast journalism, Sept. 24, 1968, deserves to be chiseled in marble. On that night, a television news show patterned after print magazines premiered on CBS. Instead of devoting its hour to one subject, the program offered a blend of serious stories and light features. Instructive and entertaining at the same time, it climbed its way into television's Top Ten shows, earning several hundred million dollars in profits and destroying the dictum that TV news cannot draw viewers and money. Its name, of course, is 60 Minutes...
Network executives still lie awake at night dreaming of ways to duplicate that glorious feat. This month two of those visions are having their debuts: NBC's American Almanac premieres this week and CBS's West 57th next week.[*] Both magazine shows last an hour, but they have little else in common. In style and approach, the programs are as different as, say, a hip teenager and his slightly stolid...
West 57th, named for the Manhattan street where CBS News is based, establishes its pace in the briskly edited montage that opens each show. Phone ringing in a CBS control booth. Someone shouting something about a tape not rolling. Lots of quick camera cuts showing hubbub in the booth spliced with shots from the week's stories. The thumping music swells into a jazzy roar as Correspondent Jane Wallace dashes up a flight of stairs. The other three correspondents (Bob Sirott, Meredith Vieira, John Ferrugia) are presented in quick succession, getting out of chairs and talking on phones...
...seen before is a news program as hypnotically visual as West 57th. Besides depending on swift-cut editing and dramatic close-ups, Lack has pared down correspondents' introductions and stuffed the sound tracks with voiceovers. The show's look and correspondents (all are under 40) have led some at CBS to dub the show Yupdoc (short for yuppie documentary). Though the slickness, so far at least, has not triumphed over the substance, the glossy style could blind some viewers to the journalism. On the other hand, the approach is sure to draw people who might otherwise not watch a newsmagazine...