Les Is More

But Moonves objects to the heat he's gotten for throwing money at big names. He believes, with some justification, that expensive, star-driven deals helped convince producers and advertisers that CBS was back in the game after years of Tisch frugality. He points to Bill Cosby as an example of a good risk. And there have been other payoffs: JAG, Promised Land, Kids Say the Darndest Things, and The Magnificent Seven. Steve Grubbs, an exec VP at ad agency BBDO, thinks Moonves is headed in the right direction, particularly with "good counter-programming." Media buyer Paul Schulman agrees: "CBS is making major headway." Neither, however, is ready to worship at the altar of the 50-plus audience.

"Before I came here and long after I'm gone, CBS will be the oldest-skewing network," Moonves said recently. But given that media-savvy boomers are aging, he thinks it's Madison Avenue that needs to change. "60 Minutes is more valuable than Jenny McCarthy, and they should realize that." After all, he argues, "I'm 48, I have money, and I'm influenced by advertising."

Grubbs concedes that Moonves' argument has merit. "Baby boomers are more open to changing brands than their predecessors," he says. "But our clients do tremendous audience research. I think the guys at Pepsi have a good sense of whom they're targeting."

Moonves maintains that he will not abandon CBS' older viewers. On the other hand, he isn't a fool, and development of 18-to-49-friendly shows will be stepped up. The problem, says one media buyer, is that "they have no place to promote them, which is why Family Matters didn't work."

Enter football. CBS is hoping its recent NFL deal (see sidebar) will provide the necessary bridge to youth. The logic goes, Young man watches football on Sunday, sees promo for Brooklyn South, comes back Monday night. Moonves plans to similarly exploit the Winter Olympics, heavily promoting shows with under-40 appeal — the new Tom Selleck sitcom The Closer and Everybody Loves Raymond being two. Moonves is frustrated by the latter show's modest success and painfully aware of what younger-skewing NBC or ABC could do for it: "Raymond is as good as Friends or Frasier. Why it isn't a 25 share is one of the challenges of CBS."

Then again, this season has been a major disappointment for all the networks. Aside from Fox's Ally McBeal — and, to a lesser extent, The WB's Dawson's Creek — none of the new series have performed well. Ultimately, who is responsible? Moonves believes network presidents are "praised too much for success and blamed too much for failure. It's not my fault Brooklyn South isn't doing as well as we'd like; it's not solely because of [Fox president] Peter Roth that Ally McBeal is a success." Ohlmeyer sees it differently: "Whatever success CBS has will be because of Les."

Unlike some of his competitors, however, Moonves refuses to foretell CBS's future. "That's why I signed a five-year contract," he jokes. "To progress you have to take chances, some of which don't work. We will never predict a CBS victory." Well, let's just say a victory beyond February sweeps.