SPORTS
By David Zurawik and The Baltimore Sun | February 4, 2013
Sunday's Super Bowl was the most viewed show in U.S. television history, according to Nielsen figures provided by CBS. A total audience of 164.1 million saw the Ravens victory over the San Francisco 49ers. The average audience for Sunday's game was 108.4 million viewers, which was the third largest average audience behind the last two Super Bowls. Total viewership is generally considered the benchmark figure. Here's the CBS release: The 2012 NFL season concluded with another television milestone as Super Bowl XLVII on CBS reached a total audience of 164.1 million viewers (6:32-8:41 and 9:11-10:47 PM, ET)
BUSINESS
By Los Angeles Times | June 30, 1994
LOS ANGELES -- CBS Inc. Chief Executive Laurence A. Tisch and QVC Inc. Chairman Barry Diller are negotiating to combine their companies in a deal valued at roughly $2 billion, sources close to the talks said yesterday.Under the terms being discussed, CBS would acquire the smaller QVC in a stock swap that would follow a cash payout to CBS shareholders. Mr. Diller would assume control of the combined company, with the 71-year-old Mr. Tisch agreeing to retire upon completion of the merger.The deal would create an entertainment/home shopping conglomerate with strong ties to the cable TV industry and the emerging information superhighway -- and take some investor pressure off of both companies.
BUSINESS
By Bloomberg Business News | August 1, 1995
PITTSBURGH -- Westinghouse Electric Corp. is expected to announce an agreement today to acquire CBS Inc. for about $5 billion, ending weeks of negotiations, people close to the talks said.Westinghouse, which was believed last week to be planning a bid of $81 a share for CBS, plans to make the announcement in New York, where its Group W broadcasting unit and CBS are based.An agreement would put Westinghouse in the lead to land CBS, but several other bidders with deep pockets could emerge now that Walt Disney Co. is snapping up Capital Cities/ABC Inc. for $19 billion in cash and stock, analysts said.
SPORTS
By Milton Kent | February 16, 1998
As if the swoon of less-than-expected ratings hasn't been bad enough, almost a third of the 1,700 CBS employees in Nagano have come down with the flu. Add in some biblical style plagues and a little pestilence and things would be just perfect.Through the first nine nights, CBS is pulling in a 16.4 for its prime-time offerings, which, in the context of what networks do these days, is pretty good. Consider that NBC won the last non-Olympic week, Jan. 26-Feb. 1, with a 10.4/17, and you would think that CBS folks would be pretty happy.
NEWS
By DAVID ZURAWIK and DAVID ZURAWIK,SUN TELEVISION CRITIC | October 27, 2005
A year after a flawed 60 Minutes report about the military career of George W. Bush forced the resignation of longtime anchorman Dan Rather, CBS placed the future of its struggling news division yesterday in the hands of Sean McManus, the president of CBS Sports. McManus, 50, will officially take over CBS News from the embattled Andrew Heyward on Nov. 7, while continuing as president of CBS Sports. The Duke University graduate, who inherits a news division ranked behind ABC and NBC, steps into his new job at a time when network television, faced with competition from cable stations and the Internet, is attempting to redefine how news is covered.
FEATURES
By David Zurawik and David Zurawik,Sun Television Critic | May 21, 1994
The bodies of a man and a woman bounce in slow motion as blast after blast of shotgun pellets tear into them. And the blasts and the bouncing seem to go on and on in the bloody den of this home in Beverly Hills.Beverly Hills? Blood? Murder?Why it must be what we've all been waiting for -- another reconstruction of the murders of Jose and Kitty Menendez at the hands of their sons Lyle and Erik.Fox did its version of the murders and trials in a movie last month that drew flies in the Nielsen ratings.