Ann Ross: Last News

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeThe venue was the same, but Paramount Global’s inaugural upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall took a very different approach compared to the CBS presentations of old.Jo Ann Ross, longtime CBS ad sales chief, still opened the show without pomp and circumstance, introducing an event that was designed to run an hour playing off the them of CBS’ signature newsmagazine “60 Minutes.” In reality, it ran about an hour and 20 minutes.In what has become a theme of the upfronts this year, media buyers spent much of the hour watching pre-taped pieces, sprinkled with in-person pitches from talent and executives. Rather than focusing on new series clips, it was “60 Minutes” anchors producing and hosting what were in essence branded custom content videos for their corporate parent.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Jo Ann Ross, the first woman to run a broadcast TV network’s ad-sales efforts and one of the last senior ad-sales executives in the TV industry to hold direct relationships with advertisers when primetime broadcast programs were seen as the primary venue for Madison Avenue’s dollars, is leaving the industry, stepping down from her role as chairman of Paramount Global‘s ad sales division at the end of April. Ross had already stepped back from day to day duties, ceding that role to John Halley, who was named president of ad sales for the company in 2022.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorJo Ann Ross has long recognized when to go for the hard- sell and when to soften things up.The Paramount Global U.S. ad sales chief is, like other executives in her position, is seizing this week to pitch big advertisers as part of the media industry’s annual “upfront,” when U.S.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSome things just don’t change. CBS and Carnegie Hall go together during TV’s upfront week like Roger Daltrey singing the refrain to a Who song, which he once performed at one of CBS’ glitzy events.While some media companies are shaking up the way they approach the kickoff to TV’s annual ad-sales market, ViacomCBS is not. The company intends to hold its presentation at the storied New York venue on May 18, charting a return to some semblance of TV operations as they were conducted before the advance of the coronavirus pandemic.

The CBS upfront, now under the umbrella of ViacomCBS, will return to its longtime home at New York’s Carnegie Hall on May 18.

By Dominic Patten