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Sean McManus
Sean McManus was named president
of CBS Sports in 1996 and president of CBS News in 2005. He is
only the second person to hold both Division titles simultaneously.
As president of CBS Sports,
McManus led the organization's efforts in acquiring broadcast
rights to the National Football League. He serves as executive
producer overseeing all aspects of CBS Sports' coverage of the
NFL, including production, on-air talent, advertising and promotion.
During McManus' more than 10
years as President of the Division, CBS Sports has become the
year-round leader in network sports television. In 1999, he led
CBS to an unprecedented landmark agreement with the NCAA which
became the most comprehensive sports agreement in history. He
also reached new multi-year agreements regarding broadcast rights
with the PGA Tour and the PGA Championship. Additionally, he
extended CBS's broadcast agreements with the United States Tennis
Association, the Big Ten conference, and the Southeastern Conference
(SEC) football and basketball agreements through 2008.
Previously, McManus was vice
president for program planning and development at NBC Sports
(1982-87), becoming the youngest vice president in the history
of the network at the age of 27. He was responsible for all programming
and was instrumental in the rights negotiations for the Olympics,
the NFL, Wimbledon, the Breeders' Cup, the Orange Bowl, auto
racing and NCAA college basketball.
As president of CBS News, McManus
has undertaken a restructuring and retooling of the Division,
both in front of and behind the camera. Most notable on the on-air
side was the April 2006 announcement that Katie Couric would
join CBS News as the new anchor and managing editor of the CBS
Evening News and a correspondent for 60 Minutes.
McManus has also aggressively
worked to build a strong corps of reporters. He has designated
and assigned key beats — chief foreign correspondent Lara
Logan, chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod, chief investigative
correspondent Armen Keteyian, national correspondent Byron Pitts
and Capitol Hill correspondent Sharyl Attkisson among them. McManus
has also added strong veteran correspondents to round out the
group, including Jeff Greenfield and Dean Reynolds. He announced
that CNN's Anderson Cooper would contribute several stories to
“60 Minutes” and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta would contribute
to the CBS Evening News. |
