Sean Macmanus: Last News

Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports and the division’s 27-year leader, will retire next April and hand the reins to David Berson, who has been president of CBS Sports for more than 10 years.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus expects to step down from his post in April of 2024, and will be replaced by David Berson, the unit of the president. McManus will wind up a tenure that had him overseeing some of the most prized sports properties in TV, as well as CBS News for a brief period.

Paramount Global has renewed its U.S. rights deal for UEFA soccer, agreeing to pay $1.5 billion for a six-year extension through 2030.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorSir Nick Faldo, who has helped call golf tournaments for CBS Sports alongside Jim Nantz for years, plans to step down from his role as CBS Sports’ lead golf analyst in August.Faldo, who has held the role of CBS Sports’ lead golf analyst since 2007, will be replaced by Trevor Immelman, who joined CBS Sports’ golf team in 2019. His new multi-year deal with CBS Sports will begin with its 2023 coverage, when he sits with Nantz for the Farmers Insurance Open.“Sir Nick has had a remarkable career on Network television for nearly 20 years and is one of the most accomplished commentators to ever sit in the 18th tower,” said Sean McManus, chairman, of CBS Sports, in a statement.  “Nick brought the same passion and dedication that propelled him to the world’s number one golfer to our broadcasts.

NFL players and teams, colleagues, friends and others are mourning John Madden, the Hall of Fame NFL coach-turned-broadcaster who died today at 85. Here are some of their tributes from social media:

Irv Cross, a Pro Bowl cornerback who would become the first Black man to work as a full-time sports analyst on national television, died Sundday near his home in Roseville, MN. He was 81.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorPutting professional football on kids-TV outlet Nickelodeon might at first blush seem like something of a Hail Mary. But CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus knew his team had completed a crucial pass by game’s end, when the winning team’s head coach, Sean Payton, agreed to be doused with Nick’s signature green slime.CBS Sports said Tuesday that the Nickelodeon broadcast, part of a wide series of interesting experiments with NFL football this past weekend, scored.

Dade Hayes Finance EditorWith the start of an NFL season like no other just days away, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said advertising sales are on pace with the 2019 season, with a sizable chunk of Super Bowl inventory sold out.On a Zoom call with the media lasting an hour and a half, McManus acknowledged that broadcasts will bear the marks of the two major themes of 2020: social justice issues and COVID-19. The network’s goal will be to strike a balance between acknowledging Black Lives Matter and other political and social flash points and serving fans looking only for game action.“We’re not going to keep our heads in the sand,” McManus said.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCan extra soccer games kick ViacomCBS more directly into TV’s streaming wars?ViacomCBS picked up an extra run of UEFA Champions League games in a deal that will put the European soccer organization’s tournaments on broadcast, cable, and, perhaps most important, streaming at a time when the media conglomerate is trying to spur new interest in its “All Access” subscription-video hub.The games will bring “an audience that maybe in the past hasn’t been that heavily involved with CBS programming,” says Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, in an interview..

Phyllis George, a pioneer in the sports broadcasting industry, died this week due to complications from a blood disorder. George first made her mark on the national stage by winning the Miss America pageant in 1971, which launched her into a broadcasting career with CBS in 1974, when she became the first female sportscaster to work at a major TV network. 

The media industry was expecting March Madness. What it got was absolute chaos.