CBS Promotes Moonves, Widening His Role

Leslie Moonves has been named president of CBS Television, expanding his responsibilities to include all aspects of network programming and distribution except for news and sports.

In the wake of the move, CBS Television Network President James Warner, 44, will leave, his position having been eliminated.

“I understand it,” said Warner, who had been with CBS since 1989. “You need a single person at the top. . . . I thought a clean break made sense.”

Promoting Moonves, 47, continues a restructuring initiated by the abrupt departure in May of CBS President Peter Lund, who quit when Westinghouse Electric Corp. Chairman Michael Jordan shifted oversight of the CBS-owned TV stations under CBS Station Group Chairman Mel Karmazin, the network’s largest stockholder. Moonves now joins Jordan, Karmazin and CBS Chief Financial Officer Fredric Reynolds on the network’s executive committee.

Though he will spend more time in New York overseeing functions based there, Moonves said that CBS’ prime-time lineup remains “my first and foremost focus” and that he has no plans to revise the current management structure.

CBS has improved its competitive standing in prime time but still ranks fourth among the major networks in the key age brackets that determine advertising rates.

Moonves ran Warner Bros. Television before joining CBS Entertainment as president in 1995 and has brought several former colleagues with him in key positions. His five-year, $5-million-a-year contract has not been extended, though its terms may have changed.

Warner’s brother Steve, who previously worked under Moonves, left CBS earlier this year for a position at the Lifetime cable network.