Dozens of advertising and media buying executives convened in late April at an event space near the west side of New York City, eager to get a look at what Paramount Skydance had to offer in its first “upfront” market under the control of CEO David Ellison. Attendees sat at long tables, dined on exquisitely prepared meats and fish, and listened to Ellison and actors from the company’s various “Yellowstone” programs talk about the alliances they might build with Madison Avenue. When the showcase ended, guests could sample from an array of desserts and hit a well-stocked bar far into the evening.
Now, Paramount is serving up something else: confusion.
In the weeks since that meeting, the company has canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and arranged for its two late-night hours to be leased to media entrepreneur Byron Allen, in a deal that will net CBS $15 million. And it has set in motion a radical overhaul of the jewel of the CBS lineup, “60 Minutes,” dispatching three of its correspondents along with several top producers.
Paramount has orchestrated these moves as it seeks millions of dollars from Madison Avenue as part of the industry’s annual “upfront” market, when U.S media companies seek to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory ahead of their next cycle of programming. Approximately 27% of Paramount’s revenue hinges on ad sales, according to Robert Fishman, a media analyst with the media-sector research firm MoffettNathanson. Paramount said it generated approximately $7.35 billion in revenue in its first fiscal quarter, which would represent nearly $2 billion in advertising.
Making such moves after starting “upfront” talks with advertisers is rare, as it suggests disarray and undermines confidence in the programming slate. To be sure, CBS announced last year that it would cancel Colbert’s “Late Show” this May. The “60 Minutes” overhaul has surprised many with its severity.
Others have unveiled similar summer surprises.
Disney’s ABC in 2003 waited just days after presenting its fall slate to advertisers to overhaul the cast of its popular drama, “The Practice.” After letting stars from the show like Dylan McDermott appear at an upfront showcase, ABC announced it was gutting the cast ahead of a final season. In 2010, ABC stunned buyers again when it parted ways in July with Stephen McPherson, the executive who oversaw both the ABC TV network and its affiliated production studios. Suddenly, the schedule would be at the mercy of a new boss.
Paramount’s ability to make such changes speaks to the changing nature of the television business. In the streaming era, advertisers are concerned less with fall schedules and scripted favorites. Instead, they want to place their commercials alongside sports and live programming as well as attach commercials to streaming selections that are bound to reach very specific kinds of viewers based on their location, income and need for a certain product. Much of this is accomplished “programmatically,” or with software that assigns commercials to audiences based on algorithms.
A media company’s ability to capture more dollars hinges on the strength of their digital venues and their sports rights, according to media buyers. News programs “aren’t a big driver” of overall ad volume, says one buying executive. The media companies “want to see growth in digital and they want to max out in sports,” says another.
Paramount declined to make executives available for comment. The view from executives, says one person familiar with the matter, is that changes in late night and at “60 Minutes” may resound culturally, but they won’t have much of an impact on the company’s sales revenue.
Even so, there are millions of dollars at stake. “The Late Show” captured $70.2 million in advertising in 2024, according to Guideline, a tracker of ad spending, while “60 Minutes” snared $79.7 million in that same year. Top sponsors of the newsmagazine in recent months include pharmaceutical manufacturers like Abbvie, Bayer and Genentech, according to data from iSpot, a company that measures ad spending and audience attention.
Media buyers had praise for some parts of Paramount’s offering this year, noting they have been impressed by executive Danielle Carney, who was in March named to head the company’s U.S. ad sales. A former specialist in sports ad sales who previously worked for Disney and Amazon’s Prime Video, Carney was brought aboard by Paramount ad sales chief Jay Askinasi, who is trying to erase any differences between linear and digital advertising so that marketers feel they can reach sizable audiences no matter where their commercials run,
Marketers continue to move dollars out of late night, according to one media-buying executive, and if one show is taken off the air, they will simply shift some portion of their spend to a rival program. But there’s less and less money left, this executive says. “Our late night budgets are probably less than 50% of what they were a year ago, which was down probably 40%. We are at a fraction of what we used to be,” says the executive. “The audiences aren’t there. People are switching to their streaming products rather than watching their network late at night.”
Shaking up “60 Minutes” could spur some advertiser pushback, this executive says, particularly if there is a perception that CBS News is trying to make the show more partisan or undermining its ability to hold powerful executives or lawmakers to account. In the past, says this executive, consumers and advertisers perceived broadcast-TV news to be less polarizing than what was on rivals from cable. “Folks were staying more with the broadcast news because they felt that was safer,” this buyer says. “Well, I don’t think it’s safer any longer.” This executive’s potential solution? Advising clients to take money from broadcast news and sprinkle it around different cable-news networks, so as to reach a broader audience no matter their political leaning.
On Friday, CBS News announced that the three remaining members of the “60 Minutes” correspondent team — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — had decided to stay with the program for its 59th season, even though the news division had ousted three other correspondents and four senior producers.
Some uncertainty around the program remains. “We have been grieving because this whole mess has wounded and damaged the broadcast. We want to stay and fight, try to repair and preserve our reputation,” the three correspondents said in a memo on Friday, adding: “If we can continue doing the work that made this show what it is — committing acts of independent, fearless journalism and storytelling — we’re here for it. If not, we leave.”
Will advertisers say the same?
