CBS EXEC SHEPHARD EXITS FOR WARNERS TV

CBS senior programs executive Harvey Shephard, a key figure in CBS’ six-season string of prime-time ratings victories through 1985, said Thursday that he’s joining Warner Bros. as president of its television production division. He will succeed Alan Shayne.

His announcement came two days after A. C. Nielsen Co. ratings showed that NBC won this season’s prime-time ratings race with an average rating of 17.5, followed by CBS with a 16.7 and ABC with a 14.9. Each ratings point represents 859,000 homes.

But Shephard, who is joining Warners on June 1, said that his exit from the network for which he has worked since 1967 was not prompted by NBC’s first prime-time victory in 31 years.

“No, that’s not the way our company works,” said Shephard, whom Kim LeMasters will succeed as vice president, programs, at CBS Entertainment. “Everyone knows when you’re dealing with public taste that it (television) is a cyclical business.”

Rumors of his impending move to Warners had circulated for several weeks, but he joked that “they’ve been kicking around for the last two years at the end of every season because everyone knows how impossible these (network programming) jobs are.

“The job takes such a tremendous toll on you because it’s so constant, and you’re constantly in the public eye.”

Speaking in a phone interview, he said that CBS “wanted me to stay, but I just felt I didn’t have it in me anymore” to continue and “I felt I was ready to take on a new challenge.”

Shayne, head of Warner Bros. television production for the last 10 years, said in a statement that he was “delighted” to turn over his job to Shephard because he had wanted to go into independent production for some time.

A spokesman said Shayne has signed a “long-term” agreement with Warners as an independent producer and consultant and will maintain an office at the studio.

Shephard had been No. 2 to CBS Entertainment President B. Donald (Bud) Grant since November, 1982, and had worked in programming for the division since 1977. In his new job, he will be working for Robert A. Daly, his former boss at CBS Entertainment and now board chairman of Warner Bros.

LeMasters, Shephard’s designated successor at CBS, formerly was the network’s vice president for miniseries. He has been with CBS since 1976, save for 1984, when he was vice president of motion picture production at Walt Disney Productions.

At Warners, Shephard will be on the other side of the current dispute between the networks and program suppliers over so-called network “license fees” that partially pay for programs. The suppliers contend that their costs have greatly escalated in recent years, and that more network money is needed.

Shephard said that most pilots coming into CBS are late this year because of “prolonged negotiations” between the network and producers and studios over license fees. But he predicted a settlement to the dispute.

“I think that’s going to happen,” he said. “There are problems, but both sides being practical businessmen, solutions are going to be worked, some sort of compromise will be worked out. Television is a lucrative business, and nobody’s going to do anything that would compromise the product.”