CBS chief Les Moonves doesn’t like to be shown up – especially by his arch rival at NBC, Jeff Zucker.
So, a day after Zucker stole the entertainment-industry spotlight by announcing a deal to keep late-night king Jay Leno at NBC with a new 10 p.m. show, Moonves derided the move as little more than a desperate ploy by a network unable to develop its own hit shows.
“For NBC, it’s probably a good move, but for us it’s not a good move,” Moonves said yesterday during a presentation at UBS’ annual media and entertainment conference. “Network television is about hit shows, and we have hit shows every night of the week.”
That’s certainly true for CBS in the 10 p.m. time slot that Leno will occupy Monday through Friday next fall as part of his new deal with NBC.
Moonves – who famously threw jabs at a punching bag decorated with Zucker’s face during an upfront presentation a few years ago – noted that CBS is winning four out of five nights at 10 p.m. CBS also ranks as the most watched TV network so far this season, while NBC is No. 4.
“[NBC’s move] is a plus for us,” said Moonves. “Taking a third competitor out of the marketplace will make us even stronger.”
In addition to saving on programming costs, Zucker has said publicly that part of the reason for moving Leno to primetime is because the old television-programming model is broken.
The Peacock boss thinks a live, topical comedy airing earlier in the evening could combat audience erosion from the Internet and digital video recorders.
Not surprisingly, Moonves disagrees.
“Certain people are experiencing audience erosion,” said Moonves in a not-so-subtle dig at NBC. “Certain people are not. We are not. Certain people will tell you the television model is broken. I’m here to tell you it is not.”
Moonves backed up his argument by noting that CBS’ freshman show “The Mentalist” was the most watched show in the country last week, the first time a freshman series ranked No. 1 since “Desperate Housewives” did it in 2005.
The actor-turned-executive also put some of his hefty pay package on the line by making a wager with the audience.
“I’ll bet anybody who would like to bet that ‘CSI: Miami’ on Mondays at 10 p.m. will beat Jay by a lot,” Moonves said.
Only a fool would take that bet, however, given “CSI: Miami” has an average audience of roughly 15 million, vs. Leno’s nightly audience of about 5 million.