Nancy Tellem

Nancy Tellem (born December 1, 1953, in Danville, California) currently serves as Sr. Advisor to the CEO, CBS Corp. She is most recently the President of CBS Network Television Entertainment.

Legal/TV Career

She is formerly responsible for deciding which shows appear on CBS, supervises the current prime-time, daytime, late-night, and Saturday morning lineup on both CBS and The CW Television Network - the merged network of The WB and UPN - including shows such as CSI, Survivor, Everybody Loves Raymond, & The King of Queens, and helped create landmark shows such as Friends and ER. As president, she also oversees programming, development, production, business affairs and operations of the CBS network.

In 2006, she was ranked as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes Magazine (#75).^[1] Also, she is the second woman in television history, after ABC's Jamie Tarses, to hold the top entertainment post at a major broadcast network, and was named the third most powerful woman in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter in 2003.^[2]

Tellem was trained as an attorney, graduated from The University of California Hastings College of the Law, and practiced law for four years in Los Angeles. In Washington, she also served as a Capitol Hill Intern for Congressman Ron Dellums (D-Calif.). Tellem's first major position was in the legal affairs department of Lorimar Television, which was one of the most successful television companies in the early eighties. Lorimar eventually merged with Warner Bros. television, and when Leslie Moonves became head of WB in 1987, he promoted Tellem to Executive Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs. When Moonves became head of CBS Entertainment in 1995, he also appointed Tellem as Executive Vice President of Business Affairs, and then promoted her to head of CBS Productions, the unit responsible for producing original series for the network. In 1998, when Moonves was again promoted as the president of CBS, he named Tellem as his successor. In 1998, Tellem succeeded Moonves as president of CBS Entertainment.

Tellem came in third place on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 25 smartest people in television.^[3]

Personal

Tellem, the daughter of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust,^[4][5] received her J.D. from University of California Hastings College of the Law, and her B.A. from University of California, Berkeley. She is married to leading sports agent Arn Tellem.

References

1. ^ Nancy Tellem, No. 75, President CBS Paramount Television Entertainment Group, http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/11/06women_Nancy-Tellem_MGYZ.html
2. ^ Paley Center for Media, She Made It, Nancy Tellem, http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/biography.aspx?m=56
3. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-12-03-macfarlane_N.htm?csp=34
4. ^ Sally Ogle Davis, "Prime Time for Hitler: CBS goes ahead with its biopic plans, but skeptics warn it had better step carefully.", Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, August 1, 2002.
5. ^ Tom Tugend, "A miniseries on the young Hitler", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 30, 1999

External links

• Nancy Tellem bio on CBS Corporation
• The Paley Center for Media: Nancy Tellem, Television Executive, Biography
• Businessweek, The Prime (Time) of Nancy Tellem.
• Nancy Tellem @ Forbes: The 100 Most Powerful Women

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Name	Tellem, Nancy
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Date of birth	December 1, 1953
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