CBS Gives Gumbel Prime Opportunity

Calling his decision “a close call” because of his loyalties to NBC, Bryant Gumbel said Thursday that it was the management of CBS News and the opportunity to create programming that led him to switch networks.

“I was impressed with the executives at CBS, and I’m excited about the chance to create a newsmagazine from scratch and to be a partner in a syndication company where I can come up with ideas for programming,” Gumbel said in an interview.

Sources said that Gumbel, who stepped down in January after 15 years of anchoring the “Today” show at NBC, will be making $7 million a year at CBS, a salary that will put him in the upper echelon of network newscasters with the likes of ABC anchors Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer.

Under the five-year deal announced by CBS Thursday, Gumbel will anchor a new prime-time newsmagazine this fall and will begin a partnership in a new production company with Eyemark Entertainment, CBS’ syndication arm. The latter venture will give him ownership in programming that has the potential to earn him significant income over his CBS salary.

“Syndication was a big part of the deal, not so much financially as in terms of the independence” it offers, Gumbel said.

Gumbel, 48, may anchor a syndicated show two years from now but initially will only be putting forth ideas for syndicated projects in which he would play a behind-the-scenes role. He also will host three celebrity-interview programs a year for CBS, similar to what Barbara Walters does for ABC.

Winning Gumbel’s services in a bidding war with ABC and NBC had been a priority for CBS executives, who hope his hiring signals a resurgence at CBS News, which trails its rivals in the evening news ratings.

“In terms of symbolism, it is significant that Bryant has chosen to come here,” CBS News President Andrew Heyward said. “A few years ago, people were saying that CBS News was never coming back.”

“One area where we’ve been wanting to build is in newsmagazines,” said Michael Jordan, chairman of CBS parent Westinghouse Electric Corp. “Having Bryant will give us a big leg up in that area.”

NBC, for which Gumbel had worked since 1972, did not have a lot to offer in its effort to keep him. Tom Brokaw remains as anchor of “NBC Nightly News” and the network already has three fully staffed editions of its “Dateline NBC” newsmagazine airing each week.

NBC tried to put together a package that included a role for Gumbel on the company’s cable channel, MSNBC, and other international networks, sources said. But even with lobbying by Jack Welch, chairman of NBC parent General Electric and a close friend of Gumbel’s, and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, NBC’s partner in MSNBC, sources said that there wasn’t enough work for Gumbel to justify the millions they would have had to pay him in the competitive bidding.

ABC, meanwhile, was said by sources to have offered Gumbel $5 million a year to host a new Thursday night prime-time newsmagazine and other projects. But Gumbel reportedly had concerns about the changes in management at ABC News last week.

Heyward and Gumbel said they will meet soon to begin developing his newsmagazine for CBS’ fall season. Heyward said there are no plans to cancel CBS’ “48 Hours,” so, with “60 Minutes” still going strong, the Gumbel program will make three newsmagazines a week for the network.

Gumbel said the program will incorporate at least one element of his 15-year stint on the “Today” show: live interviews. “Live TV and interviewing are two things I like to do,” he said.

Asked whether he might be a successor to Dan Rather as anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” Gumbel responded: “I’ve never viewed myself as an evening news anchor. In all my years at NBC, I never subbed on ‘NBC Nightly News.’ It’s not something I want to do. The subject never once came up in my discussions with Andrew. He never offered it, and I never asked for it.”

Heyward said he did not know how Gumbel’s hiring would impact on his efforts to persuade ABC’s Sawyer to join CBS. But he said the network had not offered her a syndication deal similar to Gumbel’s.

Some industry observers speculated that CBS’ deal with Gumbel could cause other high-profile anchors to ask for such profit-sharing syndication arrangements. But Heyward said, “A network would have to have a syndication company, and not everybody wants the responsibility. Some people would rather simply have the salary.”