CBS has promoted Nina Tassler to entertainment chairman and signed her to a new deal that extends through 2017, the company announced Thursday.
Tassler had previously been president of the division since 2003.
Tassler will continue to oversee CBS' entertainment programming for primetime, late night and daytime, as well as program development for all genres, including comedy, drama, reality, specials and long-form.
Tassler will also oversee advertising and promotion, business affairs, consumer products, digital/interactive, diversity, publicity, scheduling and research within the division.
The development of year-round programming will be a major initiative under Tassler, who earlier this year created a limited series and live event programming unit. The newly-created unit already has multiple projects in development for next year, namely the Mark Burnett mini-series The Dovekeepers. CBS also recently acquired the rights to air the Hollywood Film Awards.
CBS has experimented with scripted programming during the summer with last year's successful Under the Dome. This summer, along with the second season of Dome, CBS will air Steven Spielberg's Extant.
“Nina’s creative instincts, programming savvy and leadership skills have helped form a hit-making machine that has fueled the network’s success and benefitted the company’s bottom line,” said CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves, to whom Tassler will continue to report. “She’s been a friend and colleague for 25 years, and I’ve witnessed first-hand the genuine and positive energy, as well as hands-on skills, she brings to every facet of the creative process. There are very few executives with her track record of consistently achieving high-level success in all forms of entertainment programming.”
Under Tassler, CBS has been the most-watched network in primetime for 10 of the last 11 years, launching successful shows like The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Person of Interest, Elementary and reality hit Undercover Boss. She has helped build CBS' daytime slate as well, launching talker The Talk and game show Let's Make a Deal.
Tassler also developed the CSI and NCIS franchises as senior VP of drama development. She has been with CBS since 1997.
