Post by KathrynFan on Jan 20, 2006 17:07:09 GMT -5
PASADENA, Calif. — For a glimpse of the future, some people consult oracles. I go to parties.
That’s how I found myself walking in an oval inside a former wind tunnel turned Pasadena hipster space, with 80-foot-high Alpine images projected on the walls. This was the winter-themed press tour party for CBS.
As the vast room filled to capacity, I lapped the likes of playwright David Mamet, superproducer Jerry Bruckheimer and, of course, the talent: David Caruso, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Poppy Montgomery, Kathryn Morris, Tyler Williams, Phil Keoghan, Mary-Louise Parker ... all starring on hit shows on CBS or its sister networks UPN and Showtime.
Still, we reporters were waiting on the man who made these people stars (or made them stars again). Finally, Leslie Moonves arrived, with gorgeous wife Julie Chen in tow. As the head of TV’s most-watched network and overseer of one of the largest media empires on the planet, Moonves, imposing in black and burnt brown (the latter being the color of his tan), presided easily over this semi-annual critics’ tour celebration of his number-oneness.
But that’s all in the here-and-now. We newshounds wanted to know what, or rather who, was in CBS’s future.
“Are you going to ask me a Katie Couric question?” said Moonves, feigning surprise (he even stepped backwards for effect).
Of course we were! Since his news division president, Sean McManus, had earlier in the day all but reduced the field of “CBS Evening News” anchor candidates to one, we naturally wanted to know what the big guy thought. Moonves reportedly offered the “Today Show” anchor $20 million a year to leave NBC (though other CBSers said that figure was way high).
“Katie’s someone we like a lot,” Moonves said. “But you know what? Katie’s been at NBC a long, long time. We’ll leave it at that.”
Later someone asked the oracle of CBS about Google and iPods. Unlike a lot of CEOs who just like talking about new media, Moonves brings game. Sure, he presides over an old-media empire, but he’s supplying the content people actually want to download.
“The core business of Comcast, of Google, will never be about showing ‘Survivor’ or ‘CSI,’ ” Moonves said. “I said on Jim Cramer’s (CNBC) show, ‘For all you bums that don’t want to work in the middle of the day, turn on your computer. You can watch the ‘CSI’ from the night before!’ And they all cheered.”
Moonves is already selling repeats of his hottest shows on select Comcast systems and through Google Video. By the time you read this, he may have done two more deals. And with his status as a hitmaker, it’s only a matter of time before Moonves expands the CBS empire to include a film studio, to make motion pictures you can stream on your laptop.
(By the way, if you’ve been wondering who would watch a video on a 2-inch iPod screen, CBS researchers say the answer is: almost no one. Of the 5 million videos Americans downloaded with iTunes last fall, nearly all were watched on iTunes. Probably in full-screen mode.)
One reporter wanted to know if Moonves had a certain George Clooney project in his future: a remake of Sidney Lumet’s and Paddy Chayefsky’s masterful TV satire “Network.”
“Potentially, as a live broadcast,” he said. “Everything that happened there, happened today. It’s not dated at all.” Then, smiling, he added, “And I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!”
Someone said Moonves, a former TV actor, would seem well suited to play the role of Arthur Jensen, the network head immortalized by Ned Beatty with such lines as, “The world is a business, Mr. Beale; it has been since man crawled out of the slime.”
Did he want the part? “I do,” Moonves said.
He didn’t miss a beat.
■ Did “Survivor” host Jeff Probst see Danni Boatwright coming?
He did not. The terror of Tonganoxie, Kan., walked away with the ultimate “Survivor” crown and $1 million with surprising ease.
“I didn’t realize Danni was playing until six people were left,” said the Wichita native and “Survivor" host. “At tribal councils I realized, ‘Who is not a part of the conversation here?’ Danni!
“I didn’t know until I watched the episodes how subtly Danni was playing. She would even say, ‘I’ve got to figure out a way to get Judd mad at Steph.’ ”
She did, and the results spoke for themselves: Danni won by a 6-to-1 vote.
“I thought for sure it was going 4-3 either way,” Probst said. “I had no idea Steph was that disliked and disrespected.”
The next round of “Survivor,” which starts Feb. 2, is set off the coast of Panama and features an especially heartless new twist: an “exile island” where select castaways can be banished by their teammates.
“When it’s raining, there’s no cover,” Probst said. “You just have to curl up into a ball.”
That’s how I found myself walking in an oval inside a former wind tunnel turned Pasadena hipster space, with 80-foot-high Alpine images projected on the walls. This was the winter-themed press tour party for CBS.
As the vast room filled to capacity, I lapped the likes of playwright David Mamet, superproducer Jerry Bruckheimer and, of course, the talent: David Caruso, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Poppy Montgomery, Kathryn Morris, Tyler Williams, Phil Keoghan, Mary-Louise Parker ... all starring on hit shows on CBS or its sister networks UPN and Showtime.
Still, we reporters were waiting on the man who made these people stars (or made them stars again). Finally, Leslie Moonves arrived, with gorgeous wife Julie Chen in tow. As the head of TV’s most-watched network and overseer of one of the largest media empires on the planet, Moonves, imposing in black and burnt brown (the latter being the color of his tan), presided easily over this semi-annual critics’ tour celebration of his number-oneness.
But that’s all in the here-and-now. We newshounds wanted to know what, or rather who, was in CBS’s future.
“Are you going to ask me a Katie Couric question?” said Moonves, feigning surprise (he even stepped backwards for effect).
Of course we were! Since his news division president, Sean McManus, had earlier in the day all but reduced the field of “CBS Evening News” anchor candidates to one, we naturally wanted to know what the big guy thought. Moonves reportedly offered the “Today Show” anchor $20 million a year to leave NBC (though other CBSers said that figure was way high).
“Katie’s someone we like a lot,” Moonves said. “But you know what? Katie’s been at NBC a long, long time. We’ll leave it at that.”
Later someone asked the oracle of CBS about Google and iPods. Unlike a lot of CEOs who just like talking about new media, Moonves brings game. Sure, he presides over an old-media empire, but he’s supplying the content people actually want to download.
“The core business of Comcast, of Google, will never be about showing ‘Survivor’ or ‘CSI,’ ” Moonves said. “I said on Jim Cramer’s (CNBC) show, ‘For all you bums that don’t want to work in the middle of the day, turn on your computer. You can watch the ‘CSI’ from the night before!’ And they all cheered.”
Moonves is already selling repeats of his hottest shows on select Comcast systems and through Google Video. By the time you read this, he may have done two more deals. And with his status as a hitmaker, it’s only a matter of time before Moonves expands the CBS empire to include a film studio, to make motion pictures you can stream on your laptop.
(By the way, if you’ve been wondering who would watch a video on a 2-inch iPod screen, CBS researchers say the answer is: almost no one. Of the 5 million videos Americans downloaded with iTunes last fall, nearly all were watched on iTunes. Probably in full-screen mode.)
One reporter wanted to know if Moonves had a certain George Clooney project in his future: a remake of Sidney Lumet’s and Paddy Chayefsky’s masterful TV satire “Network.”
“Potentially, as a live broadcast,” he said. “Everything that happened there, happened today. It’s not dated at all.” Then, smiling, he added, “And I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!”
Someone said Moonves, a former TV actor, would seem well suited to play the role of Arthur Jensen, the network head immortalized by Ned Beatty with such lines as, “The world is a business, Mr. Beale; it has been since man crawled out of the slime.”
Did he want the part? “I do,” Moonves said.
He didn’t miss a beat.
■ Did “Survivor” host Jeff Probst see Danni Boatwright coming?
He did not. The terror of Tonganoxie, Kan., walked away with the ultimate “Survivor” crown and $1 million with surprising ease.
“I didn’t realize Danni was playing until six people were left,” said the Wichita native and “Survivor" host. “At tribal councils I realized, ‘Who is not a part of the conversation here?’ Danni!
“I didn’t know until I watched the episodes how subtly Danni was playing. She would even say, ‘I’ve got to figure out a way to get Judd mad at Steph.’ ”
She did, and the results spoke for themselves: Danni won by a 6-to-1 vote.
“I thought for sure it was going 4-3 either way,” Probst said. “I had no idea Steph was that disliked and disrespected.”
The next round of “Survivor,” which starts Feb. 2, is set off the coast of Panama and features an especially heartless new twist: an “exile island” where select castaways can be banished by their teammates.
“When it’s raining, there’s no cover,” Probst said. “You just have to curl up into a ball.”
