In late April, dozens of advertising and media buying executives gathered at an event space near New York City’s West Side to see what Paramount Skydance could offer in its first “upfront” market under CEO David Ellison’s management. Attendees sat at long tables, savored exquisitely prepared meat and fish, and listened to Ellison and actors from the company’s various “Yellowstone” programs talk about potential partnerships forged with Madison Avenue. Once the showcase concluded, guests were able to sample a variety of desserts and head to the fully stocked bar until late into the evening.
Now, Paramount is doing something else: disrupting.
In the weeks following that meeting, the company canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and arranged to lease two of its late-night hours to media entrepreneur Byron Allen, netting CBS a $15 million profit. He then embarked on a radical overhaul of “60 Minutes,” the crown jewel of CBS’s lineup, sending three correspondents and several top producers to the show.
Paramount is orchestrating these moves as it seeks millions of dollars from Madison Avenue as part of the industry’s annual “Upfront” market, in which U.S. media companies seek to sell large portions of their commercial inventory ahead of the next programming cycle. About 27% of Paramount’s revenue comes from advertising sales, said Robert Fishman, a media analyst at media research firm MoffettNathanson. Paramount said it had revenue of about $7.35 billion in the first quarter, and spent about $2 billion on advertising in the same period.
Such a move after initiating “upfront” negotiations with advertisers is rare, as it would signal disruption and undermine confidence in the network’s programming. Indeed, CBS announced last year that it would cancel Colbert’s “Late Show” in May of this year. The recalibration of “60 Minutes” surprised many with its severity.
Other companies have announced similar summer surprises.
In 2003, Disney’s ABC waited just a few days after presenting its fall schedule to advertisers to overhaul the cast of its hit show “The Practice.” ABC announced it would cut the cast ahead of the final season, after bringing the show’s stars like Dylan McDermott to appear in the Upfront Showcase. In 2010, ABC again surprised the advertising community in July when it parted ways with executive Stephen McPherson, who oversaw both the ABC television network and its affiliated production studios. Suddenly, your schedule is at the mercy of your new boss.
Paramount’s ability to make such changes speaks to the changing nature of the television business. In the streaming era, advertisers are less interested in fall schedules and scripted favorites. Instead, they want to place commercials alongside sports and live programming, or attach commercials to streaming selections that are sure to reach very specific types of viewers based on location, income, and specific product needs. Much of this is accomplished “programmatically,” or through software that assigns commercials to viewers based on algorithms.
Media companies’ ability to win more funding will depend on the strength of their digital venues and sports rights, media buyers said. News programming “doesn’t have a huge impact” on overall advertising volume, said one purchasing executive. Media companies “want to grow in digital, and they want to do the best they can in sports,” said another.
Still, Paramount needs to get as much advertising money as possible from CBS. Even as it works to build out a streaming portfolio that includes Pluto, Paramount+, and a vaunted movie studio, Paramount continues to generate its biggest revenue from its broader television business. CBS is considered prime real estate by advertisers.
But that’s not the case with Paramount’s cable network. In fact, media buyers say they are taking money away from traditional cable stations that focus on scripted entertainment and traditional programming. Media buyers have been putting pressure on sellers to “roll back” the fees they charge to reach 1,000 viewers. The metric, known as CPM, is a key metric in annual “upfront” discussions between television companies and Madison Avenue. Many of Paramount’s biggest advertising deals are likely to be in properties that air on CBS.
Paramount executives declined to comment. A person familiar with the matter said management believes the changes to late night and “60 Minutes” may resonate culturally, but won’t have a significant impact on the company’s sales.
Still, millions of dollars are at risk. “The Late Show” earned $70.2 million in ad revenue in 2024, while “60 Minutes” earned $79.7 million in the same year, according to guidelines that track ad spending. Top sponsors of news magazines in recent months have included drug makers such as Abby, Bayer and Genentech, according to data from iSpot, a company that measures ad spending and audience attention.
Media buyers praised some of Paramount’s offerings this year, saying they were impressed by executive Daniel Carney, who was named the company’s head of U.S. advertising sales in March. Carney, a sports ad sales specialist who previously worked at Disney and Amazon’s Prime Video, was brought in by Paramount’s head of ad sales, Jay Askinasi. He wants to erase the difference between linear and digital advertising so that marketers can feel like they can reach a sizable audience no matter where they run their commercials.
One media buying executive said marketers keep their money moving late into the night, and if one show goes off the air, they simply shift some of the spending to competing shows. But the money left is becoming increasingly scarce, the executive said. “Our late-night budget is probably less than 50% of what it was a year ago, which was down 40%. It’s a fraction of what it was before,” the executive says. “The audience isn’t there. People are switching to streaming products rather than watching networks late at night.”
The executive said reforming “60 Minutes” could spur a backlash from some advertisers, especially if there is a perception that CBS News is trying to make the show more partisan or undermine its ability to hold powerful executives and lawmakers accountable. The executive said consumers and advertisers previously perceived broadcast news to be less polarizing than rival cable TV news. “People stayed with broadcast news because they felt safer there,” the buyer says. “Well, I don’t think it’s safe anymore.” What is this executive’s possible solution? Regardless of the client’s political leanings, he advises them to take money from broadcast news and spread it across various cable news networks so they can reach a broader audience.
On Friday, CBS News announced that the remaining three members of the “60 Minutes” correspondent team, Leslie Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim, have decided to remain on the show for the 59th season, even though the news division has fired three other correspondents and four senior producers.
Uncertainty surrounding the program remains. “We are saddened by the hurt and damage this entire turmoil has done to our broadcast. We want to stay and fight and repair and maintain our reputation,” the three correspondents said in a memo Friday, adding, “If we can continue the work that has made this show what it is: independent and fearless journalism and storytelling, we are here to do it. If not, we are leaving.”
Would advertisers say the same?
