CBS

In the late 1920s Arthur Judson, the impresario of the Philadelphia and New York Philharmonic orchestras, proposed to NBC, then the only radio network in the United States, that it air orchestra performances; NBC declined. In 1927 Judson founded his own broadcasting company, United Independent Broadcasters (UIB). Lacking the capital that NBC received from its parent RCA, UIB struggled for several months; that summer the record company Columbia Phonograph bought UIB’s operating rights for $163,000, and the new company was named the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In 1928 Columbia Phonograph, frustrated by a lack of advertiser loyalty, sold the operating rights back to the broadcasting company, whose name was shortened to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). That year William S. Paley, the son of a cigar company owner, invested $400,000 in the company’s stock and was quickly elected president; CBS then had only 16 affiliated radio stations and no stations of its own.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Paley tripled earnings in his first year by offering affiliates the network’s entire unsponsored schedule at no cost in return for airtime for sponsored broadcasts, whereas NBC charged affiliates for all programs; within a decade CBS added nearly 100 affiliates. In 1930 CBS had 300 employees and sales of $7.2 million; in 1933 it formed the Columbia News Service, the first radio network news operation; and by 1935 CBS was the largest radio network in the United States.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

In 1931 CBS opened the experimental television station W2XAB using equipment furnished by RCA; its inaugural broadcast was on July 21, using a 60-line flying-spot scanner camera. From 1937 the station broadcast electronic television on channel 3 as W2XAX; in 1941 its call sign was changed to WCBW, and after the war it became WCBS. Its transmitter was placed on the Chrysler Building in New York.⁠[2][2][2][2][2]

In 1938 Edward R. Murrow became head of CBS’s European division, and that year CBS made the first international radio news broadcast, with Murrow in Vienna, William L. Shirer in London and others reporting from Paris, Berlin and Rome; CBS thereby began interrupting regular programming with news. That year CBS also entered the record business by buying the American Record Corporation, later renamed the Columbia Recording Corporation. By the start of World War II, CBS had more than 2,000 employees, annual sales of nearly $36 million and more than 100 affiliates.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In 1940 the world’s first experimental color television broadcast was made from a CBS transmitter atop the Chrysler Building; in 1941 CBS began weekly broadcasts of black-and-white television programs. At the same time the FCC issued chain-broadcasting rules restricting network operations; the Columbia Broadcasting System and NBC each sued, and on May 10, 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rules.⁠[1][1][3][3][3]

After the war Paley devised an arrangement under which stars could be taxed as companies rather than as individuals and lured many of them away from NBC: Jack Benny was the first to move to CBS, followed by Edgar Bergen, Amos ’n’ Andy, Red Skelton, and George Burns and Gracie Allen. Within a year CBS overtook NBC in programming, advertising revenue and profits, a lead it kept into the television era.⁠[1][1][1]

In 1946 CBS asked the FCC to approve its color television system, but the system was incompatible with existing black-and-white sets and the commission rejected it as “premature.” In 1950, when CBS and RCA both submitted systems, the commission approved only the CBS system; RCA appealed, keeping CBS from marketing its system and gaining time to improve its own. In 1953 the FCC reversed itself and adopted the RCA approach.⁠[1][1][1][1]

On October 15, 1951, the sitcom I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, premiered on CBS. Within six months it was the No. 1 show in the country, with about 11 million families watching every week at a time when there were only about 15 million TV sets nationwide; it was television’s most-watched program in four of its six seasons.⁠[4][4][4]

During Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist campaign in the early 1950s, all the networks came under pressure; CBS, considered the most liberal, still required 2,500 employees to sign a “loyalty oath.” In 1954 CBS News commentators exposed McCarthy’s unethical behavior on See It Now, which proved so controversial that CBS eventually canceled it. In 1956 CBS’s quiz show The $64,000 Question was shown to be rigged.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In the late 1950s Paley hired James Aubrey as president of CBS, who introduced popular shows such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Mr. Ed and The Munsters and doubled the network’s profits in his first two years. Under Paley’s leadership the CBS television network topped the ratings for twenty consecutive years.⁠[1][1][1][5]

CBS had made only two acquisitions before 1964 but made acquisitions almost every year thereafter: in 1964 it bought an 80% interest in the New York YankeesNew York YankeesThe New York Yankees are an MLB baseball team based in New York City, with Yankee Stadium in the Bronx as their home.Open the full entry baseball team, which it sold ten years later, and during the 1960s it acquired businesses in musical instruments, book publishing and children’s toys. By the end of the decade CBS had 22,000 employees and net profits of more than $64 million. In 1968 the television newsmagazine 60 Minutes premiered. All in the Family debuted in 1971, and M*A*S*H and The Waltons in 1972.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

The 1970s brought managerial turmoil at CBS: Charles T. Ireland became president in 1971 and was replaced the next year by Arthur Taylor, who served four years and was removed when the network placed second in the Nielsen ratings for the first time in 21 years; he was succeeded by John D. Backe, president of the publishing division. In 1980 CBS regained first place in prime time, and a week later Backe was forced to resign; he was replaced by Thomas H. Wyman, a former Pillsbury vice president.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

In 1976, after reporter Daniel Schorr leaked a secret House Intelligence Committee report on the CIA to the Village Voice, CBS relieved him of all duties, and he resigned several months later. In April 1979, in a libel case involving CBS correspondent Mike Wallace and producer Barry Lando, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that journalists accused of libel may be required to answer questions about their “state of mind” and their conversations with colleagues during the editorial process, a victory for former Lieutenant Colonel Anthony E. Herbert, who said a 1973 60 Minutes broadcast had libeled him.⁠[1][1][1][1]

In 1982 CBS aired the documentary The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception, and retired Army General William Westmoreland then filed a $120 million libel suit. Several years later Westmoreland withdrew his charges after CBS promised to publicly attempt to restore his character.⁠[1][1][1]

In 1985 Ted Turner, owner of Turner Broadcasting System, announced his intention to take over CBS; CBS fended him off with a $954.8 million “poison pill,” buying back 21% of its outstanding stock. In September 1986 Larry Tisch, chairman of Loews, which owned nearly 25% of CBS stock, replaced Wyman as chief executive; Paley returned as chairman and Wyman was forced to resign. Tisch was originally to serve as interim chief executive but was confirmed in the job within four months.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

Tisch cut costs sharply: in 1986 he sold the book publishing business to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich for $500 million and sold all the toy businesses, and in 1987 he sold CBS Records to Sony for $2 billion, a move criticized for selling the industry’s leading record company. In 1987 CBS finished last in the Nielsen ratings.⁠[1][1][1][1]

Paley died in 1990, having remained at or near the helm of CBS for more than sixty years. In 1991 CBS jumped from last place, where it had been for the previous four years, to first in the ratings, with five of the top ten programs, led by 60 Minutes; but an advertising slump and costly sports contracts left the company with a loss. In 1993 CBS lost the rights to NFC football games.⁠[5][1][1][1][1]

The loss of NFC rights, mounting losses and the lack of a move into cable led one of CBS’s major institutional investors to cast a vote of no confidence in management. On August 1, 1995, CBS and Westinghouse Electric signed a merger agreement; the deal closed on November 24, when a Westinghouse subsidiary merged into CBS Inc., CBS became a wholly owned Westinghouse subsidiary, and shareholders received $82.065 in cash per share, for a total of about $5.4 billion.⁠[1][6][6][6][1]

Westinghouse chief executive Michael H. Jordan decided to shed all of the company’s industrial businesses and focus on broadcasting: in 1997 it paid $4.9 billion for Infinity Broadcasting, the second-largest radio station group in the United States, and $1.55 billion for The Nashville Network and Country Music Television, entering cable. On December 1, 1997, Westinghouse changed its name to CBS Corporation and moved its headquarters from Pittsburgh to New York; CBS then signed an eight-year, $4 billion NFLNFLThe NFL (National Football League) is a U.S. professional American football league of 32 clubs. Founded in 1920 as the APFA and renamed in 1922, it is organized into the AFC and NFC, with the season culminating in the Super Bowl.Open the full entry contract.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

On May 4, 2000, under a merger agreement signed in September 1999, CBS Corporation merged into Viacom, with Viacom as the surviving company; each CBS common share was converted into 1.085 shares of Viacom non-voting Class B stock.⁠[7][7][7]

On February 1, 2004, CBS broadcast the NFL’s Super Bowl XXXVIII live; during the halftime show produced by MTV, Justin Timberlake pulled open part of Janet Jackson’s costume, causing an accidental exposure that lasted about nine-sixteenths of a second, in front of nearly 90 million viewers. Both performers apologized and said MTV and CBS had not known of the plan; CBS then put a five-minute delay on its Grammy Awards broadcast and required the two to apologize on air in order to appear, which Jackson declined.⁠[8][8][8][9][9][9]

The FCC found the broadcast indecent and in March 2006 imposed forfeitures totaling $550,000 on CBS stations. CBS appealed, and the Third Circuit vacated the penalty in 2008; after the FCC petitioned the Supreme Court, the case was remanded, and on November 2, 2011, the Third Circuit again ruled that the commission had arbitrarily and capriciously departed from its prior policy of exempting fleeting broadcast material and vacated the forfeiture order in its entirety.⁠[8][8][8][8][8][8]

On December 31, 2005, the former Viacom split into two public companies: the former Viacom was renamed CBS Corporation, and a new Viacom was created. CBS Corporation, run by Leslie Moonves, included the CBS and UPN broadcast networks, the premium cable channel Showtime and the Infinity radio division, among other businesses; before the split Moonves said CBS would demand that cable and satellite operators pay for carrying its signal.⁠[10][10][11][11][11]

On July 27, 2018, The New Yorker published an investigation by Ronan Farrow in which six women accused CBS Corporation chairman and chief executive Leslie Moonves of sexually harassing them between the 1980s and the late 2000s. In a statement Moonves acknowledged that decades earlier he may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances, calling those mistakes, but said he had never used his position to harm anyone’s career; CBS said at the time that there had been no misconduct claims or settlements against him during his tenure.⁠[12][12][12]

On August 1 the CBS board retained two law firms to conduct a full investigation of the allegations and the company’s culture. On September 9 Moonves resigned as a director, chairman and chief executive under a separation and settlement agreement; the company contributed $20 million to charities supporting the #MeToo movement and placed $120 million in a trust pending resolution. On December 17 the board determined, based on the investigation’s findings, that there were grounds to terminate Moonves for cause and that he would receive no severance; Moonves demanded arbitration in January 2019. In May 2021 ViacomCBS said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the dispute had been resolved, the arbitration dismissed and the $120 million returned to the company in full; Moonves has denied any allegations of non-consensual sex.⁠[10][10][10][10][10][10][13][13]

On December 4, 2019, Viacom merged into CBS Corporation, with CBS as the surviving company, and the combined company changed its name to ViacomCBS Inc. In October 2020 CBS unified its brand identity across platforms, keeping its “eye” logo and adding a five-tone audio signature. On February 16, 2022, ViacomCBS was renamed Paramount Global.⁠[14][15][16][16][15]

Trump sued CBS over the editing of a 2024 60 Minutes interview with then–Vice President Kamala Harris, alleging election interference and seeking $20 billion in damages. In April 2025 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens announced his resignation, saying he would no longer be allowed to run the show independently as he always had; CBS News chief executive Wendy McMahon, who had opposed settling, also resigned. On July 1 Paramount Global announced that it had agreed to pay $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library foundation, plus his legal fees, to settle the suit; the settlement included no apology or statement of regret, and 60 Minutes would release transcripts of future interviews with presidential candidates after they aired. A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said it held the “Fake News media” accountable. Legal scholars from across the spectrum regarded the lawsuit as baseless.⁠[17][17][18][17][17][17][17][17][17][17]

In mid-July late-night host Stephen Colbert called the settlement a “big fat bribe” on his CBS show; three days later Paramount canceled The Late Show, CBS sources anonymously suggested the show had lost $40 million to $50 million the previous year, and Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was delighted.⁠[19][19][19][19]

On July 24, 2025, the FCC voted 2–1 to approve the transfer of licenses for 28 CBS-owned stations to the Skydance-led ownership group, with Anna Gomez, the only Democratic commissioner, opposed; chairman Brendan Carr welcomed Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at CBS. Skydance pledged to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to appoint an ombudsman to handle complaints of bias involving CBS. The deal closed on August 7, when Paramount Global and Skydance became wholly owned subsidiaries of Paramount Skydance Corporation, which is indirectly controlled by the Ellison family.⁠[20][20][20][20][21][15][15]

Skydance then hired Kenneth Weinstein, head of a conservative think tank, as ombudsman and Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press, as editor in chief of CBS News.⁠[22][22]

CBS had been the most-watched broadcast network in prime time in every season since 2008–09; in the 2025–26 season through May 17, CBS was second with an average of 4.63 million viewers (down 19%), while NBC, boosted by the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, was first.⁠[23][23][23]

CBS rotates White House television pool duty with ABC, CNNCNNCNN (Cable News Network) is an Atlanta-based news organization founded by Ted Turner on June 1, 1980, as the world’s first 24-hour television news channel. It has been owned in turn by Turner Broadcasting System, Time Warner, AT&T and Warner Bros. Discovery, became part of Skydance Corporation along with Warner Bros. Discovery in October 2026, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry, FOX News and NBC; CNN joined the pool after suing the Reagan administration and ABC, CBS and NBC in 1981. On September 18, 2026, Trump announced a ban on CNN, MS NOWMS NOWMS NOW (My Source for News, Opinion and the World) is an American cable channel for political news and commentary. It was formerly MSNBC, launched in July 1996 as a joint venture of NBC and Microsoft, adopted its current name on November 15, 2025, as its business was spun off from Comcast, and since January 2026 has belonged to the independent public company Versant Media Group. It is known for its liberal-leaning commentary programs.Open the full entry and Politico from the White House, and on September 21 the White House did not allow CNN, which was scheduled for duty, to serve as the pool. That day the five networks issued a joint statement saying the public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government and that no administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting, and suspended the TV pool, with no replacement, while the restrictions remained in place.⁠[24][25][24][24][26][26]

The suspension lasted about four days and coincided with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House, so there was much less video coverage of the related ceremonies. On September 24 a judge ordered the White House to restore the three outlets’ credentials, though the order did not directly address the pool; on September 25 the five networks resumed the pool, with CBS News serving as the primary TV pool network that day, and the networks aired footage of Trump’s meeting with Xi at the White House.⁠[27][27][28][29][30][30]

On October 6, 2026, CBS’s parent Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, bringing CBS and CNN under the same group; the company was renamed Skydance Corporation, and its Class B stock moved its listing to the New York Stock Exchange, with the ticker changed from PSKY to SKYD.⁠[31][31]

In October 2026 the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division opened an investigation into whether ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News violated antitrust law by suspending the White House television pool. Justice Department spokesperson Emily Covington said group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act and that the Antitrust Division was simply investigating whether these news organizations had broken the law; a Justice Department official said civil investigative demands had been sent on October 9. CBS representatives declined to comment. As of October 14, 2026, the Justice Department had announced no findings.⁠[28][27][32][32][33]

As of the end of 2025, the CBS Television Network, through CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports, distributes entertainment, news and public affairs, and sports programming to owned and affiliated stations, and its programming is also available through CBS.com, Paramount+, Pluto TV and pay-TV distributors; CBS Stations owns 29 television stations, located in the five largest U.S. markets and in 15 of the top 20.⁠[15][15][15][15]

CBS: Official website: https://www.cbs.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[15][34]

X: Public account: https://x.com/CBS (opens in a new window)⁠[35]