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Who Counts at CBS?

Nov 10, 2003  •  Post A Comment

The CBS 75th anniversary special, “CBS at 75,” lovingly produced by Gil Cates, gathered an impressive group of stars, including Alan Alda, Loni Anderson, Carol Burnett, Martin Landau, Mary Tyler Moore, Tom Selleck and the Smothers Brothers as well as contemporary stars such as Ray Romano, Ted Danson and Joe Pantoliano. (For more coverage read The Insider, Page 11.) What made us Blink, however, was all those audience reaction shots featuring faces more familiar in the boardroom than in the Hammerstein Ballroom. For those who weren’t counting, Blink did a tally of just how many times we got to see how much they were enjoying the show. Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone got his mug on the network six times, as did CBS topper Leslie Moonves, who also made a classy appearance on stage to recall network founder Bill Paley. Former CBS exec Sir Howard Stringer, (the subject of an interview beginning on Page 12, which makes two Stringer mentions in this issue, for those who are counting), now the big guy at Sony, got five reaction shots. However, the winner for the most audience grab shots of the night goes to silver-haired Viacom President Mel Karmazin, whose joy and delight in the festivities was featured an astounding 10 times. Blink believes that answers the question once posed by an ABC show: “Who’s the Boss?”