Retired Chairman Sean McManus Leaves CBS Sports With Critical Properties Locked Up Long-Term

Sean McManus has had little time to reflect on his nearly 27-and-a-half-year tenure as the leader of CBS Sports. Last month there was the NCAA Men’s Tournament and coverage of the Masters this weekend.

In fact, McManus has approached the past six months since announcing his retirement with a greater sense of gratitude. McManus’ final event as president of CBS Sports will be in the tournament that is synonymous with the network.

“I’ve tried to absorb them all even more than I normally do, and I appreciate the incredible opportunities I’ve had,” McManus said during an interview last week with the Associated Press. “Some are looking back, but looking back with nothing but pride and affection for the events I was lucky enough to cover and the team I assembled.”

McManus, who turned 69 in February, began thinking about retirement two years ago. With CBS hosting the Super Bowl this year along with the NCAA Tournament and the Masters, McManus and CBS President/CEO George Cheeks agreed the timing was right. David Berson, president of CBS Sports for more than 10 years, is McManus’ handpicked successor.

McManus’ career began at a young age when he got a front-row seat to sports production, going to events with his father, the late Jim McKay, who hosted ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and covered 12 Olympics.

McKay also worked at CBS from 1950 to 1961 and hosted coverage of the Masters from 1957 to 1960. This is the 68th consecutive year of the Masters on CBS, making it the longest current relationship between a network and a sporting event.

“You think about 74 years of the McManus family leaving their fingerprints on an event. It’s really cool to think about three quarters of a century. His father had a mark in the tournament. Sean has had a huge mark on this tournament for 28 years. It’s amazing,” said Jim Nantz, CBS’ lead NFL and golf announcer, who also called the Final Four from 1991 to 2023.

McManus started as a production assistant and associate producer at ABC Sports in 1977. Two years later, he moved to NBC and rose to vice president of program planning and development. In 1987, he was named senior vice president of U.S. television sales and programming for Trans World International, a division of IMG, before joining CBS Sports as president in December 1996.

He was president of CBS News and CBS Sports from 2005 to 2011, before being named president of CBS Sports in February 2011.

“Very few people, if any, have had such an impact on the sports media industry. Plus, he’s the epitome of class,” Berson said.

McManus came to CBS Sports when the schedule was weekend only. This grew into a cable television network, website and digital streaming.

Neal Pilson. who was president of CBS Sports from 1981 to 1994, is among McManus’ many fans for the way he navigated a changing landscape.

“I now see the business as 10 times more difficult, and Sean navigated a much more complex business environment certainly as well or better than I could have,” he said.

McManus’ most significant achievements were bringing the NFL back to the network in 1998 and partnering with Turner Sports to host the NCAA tournament in 2010.

CBS was, in many ways, in the sports world from 1994 to 1997, when it didn’t have the NFL. This decimated the sports division and caused CBS to go from first to third place in primetime ratings and affiliate switching between stations in major cities.

Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, who was with CBS Sports from 1997 to 2008, said not a day went by in his first year that he and McManus didn’t talk about how to turn around the NFL.

“For someone who just got there, they really trusted him. The real skill was in Sean motivating CBS leaders to close the deal,” he said.

CBS’s winning bid in 1998 was $500 million a year. His current deal runs until 2033 and costs $2.1 billion per season. With the NFL helping to promote programming, CBS once again became the premier primetime network.

“It’s almost impossible, probably insurmountable, to have a broadcast network without the NFL,” McManus said. “That drives all of their distribution deals. It is a promotional vehicle. This is huge. And, I think, the broadcast model today depends a lot on sports in general and the NFL specifically.”

McManus oversaw nine Super Bowls, including Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco in February. The game was the most-watched program in United States television history, averaging 123.7 million viewers across television and streaming platforms.

Roger Goodell, an integral part of the NFL’s negotiating team on television deals even before he became commissioner in 2006, said McManus has long been a trusted advisor on broadcast issues, even when it has not directly affected CBS.

“You have to find ways to improve the fan experience, and Sean has that voice and experience,” Goodell said. “His advice was valuable because he was always the guy who would have a very honest and insightful perspective.”

McManus’ decision to team up with Turner for March Madness was driven by two things: the tournament was losing money for CBS, and dividing the country into eight regions without everyone having access to every game was outdated.

Starting with the 2011 tournament, the CBS and Turner sales teams have worked together, while CBS’ Clark Kellogg shares the studio desk with TNT’s Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.

The partnership also includes the network’s alternating coverage of the Final Four. TBS and TNT first carried the title game in 2016. Starting next year, each network will pay an average of $550 million per year through 2032.

McManus also introduced CBS to football with the Champions League and NWSL. The NWSL signed a broad rights deal that expanded its distribution across multiple networks, but a package of regular-season games remains on CBS, along with this season’s championship game airing in prime time for the third consecutive year.

“They saw us as the future of sports audiences, and because of that, they pushed the boundaries of their agreement with us,” said NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman. “When I took office, I challenged them about having our championship in prime time and what a big difference it would make for us. And in the last two years of this agreement, they worked to make that happen.”

McManus leaves CBS with all of its critical properties locked up long-term. In addition to the NFL and March Madness, the NWSL runs through 2027, the Big Ten and UEFA Champions League rights run through the 2029-30 season, while the PGA Tour and PGA Championship deals don’t expire until 2030.

“The timing is right,” McManus said. “I think it’s good for the category and it’s very good for me.”

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