New York Festivals® TV & Film Awards will honor Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports, with the 12th annual New York Festivals® Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award recognizes prominent industry leaders, innovators, and driving forces in the broadcast industry whose accomplishments have advanced their field and made a lasting impression on the industry.
“I am honored and humbled to receive the New York Festivals Lifetime Achievement Award, which is a tribute to the outstanding women and men with whom I’ve worked alongside my entire career,” said McManus. “I have been fortunate to have some of the greatest mentors in sports television history and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to them all. It all goes back to the enormous influence my father had on my personal and professional life. Without the guidance from him and my mom and finally the constant support and love from my wife Tracy and my children, Maggie and Jackson, I would never have been in a position to receive this incredible honor.”
McManus is in the midst of an extraordinary four-decade career as a television sports executive. McManus, who was named chairman, CBS Sports, in February 2011, oversees all sports properties across CBS Sports operations and also serves as executive producer of The NFL ON CBS. Serving concurrently as president, CBS News and Sports for more than five years prior to being named chairman, McManus was named president, CBS Sports, in November 1996 and, CBS News, in October 2005 and is only the second person at any network to hold both division titles simultaneously. (Roone Arledge held both at ABC from 1977-86.)
Throughout his career at CBS Sports, McManus has actively negotiated broadcast rights deals for major sports, including the NFL, the Masters, the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, the PGA Tour, UEFA Champions League soccer, PGA of America, Southeastern Conference (SEC) football and college basketball.
As president of CBS Sports, McManus led the CBS Corporation’s efforts in returning the NFL to CBS, acquiring broadcast rights to the National Football League in January 1998. The network has retained NFL rights ever since. The ultimate dealmaker, he in 1999 led CBS to sign an unprecedented landmark agreement with the NCAA, which extended the exclusive over-the-air broadcast rights and also covered rights to the internet, marketing and corporate sponsorship, merchandising, licensing, cable television, radio, satellite, digital, and home video for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship until 2014. The 11-year pact was the most comprehensive sports agreement in history. In April 2010, he negotiated a landmark deal, partnering with Turner Broadcasting, to extend the rights to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship through 2024. The $10.8 billion deal is the most extensive and far-reaching network-cable sports deal ever created. And in April 2016, McManus, in partnership with Turner Broadcasting, negotiated with the NCAA an eight-year extension of its multimedia rights agreement for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship through 2032.
As president of CBS News, McManus restructured and re-tooled the division–both in front of and behind the camera–and aggressively worked to build a strong corps of reporters as well as develop the next generation of CBS News correspondents.
McManus also serves as executive producer for the acclaimed show Inside The NFL, which moved to Paramount+ this year after 13 years on Showtime.
McManus is an 18-time Emmy Award-winner. In 2016, he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. In 2015, he was honored with the Legacy Award at the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards. He annually appears on the Sports Business Journal’s most influential in Sports list. And in 2010, McManus was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.
The 2022 New York Festivals Storyteller’s Gala will be a virtual event taking place on April 26th in association with the annual NAB Show.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More