President of CBS Entertainment Calls It Quits

Unable to come up with any hit shows to pull CBS out of its prime-time ratings doldrums, Earle H. (Kim) LeMasters resigned Thursday after two years as president of the third-place TV network’s entertainment division.

A successor was not immediately named to take charge of the development, production and scheduling of programs at the network, which is running third in the prime-time ratings for the third season in a row. It has only two series among the Top 20: “Murder, She Wrote” and the news division’s “60 Minutes.”

In a telephone interview, LeMasters called his decision to leave voluntary and denied that he had been forced out, although rumors that CBS was searching for a successor have been circulating for the past several weeks. “No, this was very much destiny at my own hands,” he said. “This has been something I’ve been thinking about for a while--that it’s time to move on.” He said he plans to become a TV producer.

The announcement came a day after the conclusion of the important November ratings “sweeps,” in which CBS registered its lowest figures ever, and the day after a gala celebration in LeMasters’ honor at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Stars and producers of CBS shows had turned out to toast, roast and entertain LeMasters as he received the Jewish National Tree of Life Award and celebrated having turned 40 on Nov. 16.

LeMasters said the irony of the event wasn’t lost on him.

“It was like being in a Fellini movie. To tell the truth, it was rather bizarre for me; it was wave after wave of the irony of it all sweeping over me,” he said.

LeMasters, who joined CBS in 1976 and took over the entertainment division in November, 1987, said he was no longer enjoying the job. “The timing of it is quite simply that this is the time of year that they’re going to start making mid-season changes and decisions, and if my heart’s not in it any more, someone else should be doing it.”

The resignation touched off a blizzard of speculation and information-swapping throughout Hollywood and New York as CBS sought to find a successor.

One network executive compared LeMasters’ departure to events in Prague, Czechoslovakia, with the pace of change moving faster than anyone expected or had been prepared for. According to this source, LeMasters confronted top CBS officials and told them he was aware that they were moving toward replacing him. He demanded a new commitment from the network. When he did not get it, the source said, he resigned, apparently catching the corporate brass off guard.

Jeff Sagansky, president of Tri-Star Pictures and a former NBC program executive, had been considered the front-runner for the job. Sources said he had been offered the presidency of the CBS entertainment division earlier this week, turned it down and then was offered it again.

Sagansky said Thursday that he would not take the job. A spokesman for Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Tri-Star’s parent company, said Sagansky was under contract to the studio.

Numerous other names have been mentioned as possible candidates. Former ABC Entertainment President Brandon Stoddard, now head of ABC Productions, met with top CBS executives two months ago to discuss the last-place network’s programming problems, but he let it be known that he was not interested in a job, according to a knowledgeable source. Stuart Bloomberg, executive vice president of ABC Entertainment, was also contacted by CBS but did not want the top post there, sources said.