CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

which is a subsidiary of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of

Paramount Global Paramount Global (Trade name, d/b/a Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and Headquarters, headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, ...

. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by

CBS Corporation CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing and television production. It was split from Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside an entirely new Viacom; both ...

as CBS Paramount (Network) Television, as a renaming of the original incarnation of the

Paramount Television The first incarnation of Paramount Television was operated as the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006. History Desilu Pro ...

studio. It is the television production arm of the CBS network ( CBS Productions previously assumed such functions until 2004, when it was merged into

), and, along with Warner Bros. Television Studios (a part of Warner Bros. Discovery) and CW Studios (network's recently launched production arm), it is also the television production arm of

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

(in which Paramount has a 12.5% ownership stake; along with Warner Bros. Discovery).

History

Predecessors

CBS's original production and distribution units

In 1952, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) formed an in-house television production unit, CBS Productions, as well as facilities in the newly established Television City in the

Fairfax District, Los Angeles The Fairfax District is a neighborhood in the Central Los Angeles, Central region of Los Angeles, California. Historically the Fairfax District has been a center of the History of the Jews in Los Angeles, Jewish community in Los Angeles. It is ...

in Westside. Also formed was CBS Television Film Sales (later known as CBS Films) as the distributor of off-network and first-run syndicated programming to local television stations in the United States and abroad. In 1963,

CBS Studio Center Radford Studio Center, alternatively CBS Studio Center, is a television and film studio located in the Studio City district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, United States. The lot has 18 sound stages from , of office spac ...

is established in the Studio City district of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

. In 1970, CBS Films became Viacom Enterprises and was spun off the following year. In 1978, CBS' production unit gained the secondary/alternate name CBS Entertainment Productions. In 1994, Westinghouse Electric acquired CBS. Viacom merged with its creator CBS, in 2000.

Paramount Pictures' early television ventures

In 1939, experimental television stations were established in Los Angeles (''W6XYZ)'' as Television Productions Inc. and Chicago (''W9XBK'') with Balaban and Katz. Commercial broadcasting began in 1943 over ''WBKB'' in Chicago (now WBBM-TV). Commercial broadcasting began in 1947 over

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is ...

in Los Angeles. In 1949, Paramount Pictures became the first major studio to establish program syndication with the

Paramount Television Network The Paramount Television Network, Inc. was a venture by American film corporation Paramount Pictures to organize a television network in the late 1940s. The company-built television stations KTLA in Los Angeles and WBKB in Chicago; it also in ...

(much of which originated from KTLA). Paramount branched out of broadcasting in 1964 with the sale of KTLA to

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...

Desilu Productions, later Paramount Network Television

Desilu Productions Desilu Productions, Inc. () was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as ''I Love Lucy'', '' The Lucy Show'', '' Mannix'', '' The ...

was formed in 1950 by

Desi Arnaz Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986), known as Desi Arnaz, was a Cuban-American actor, musician, producer, and bandleader. He played Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom ''I Love Lucy'', in whi ...

and

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...

. Desilu Studios was established in Hollywood and Culver City in 1957, after Arnaz/Ball purchased the

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...

studio lot. Desilu Sales Inc. was formed in 1962 as the company's syndication arm. In 1967, Desilu Productions was acquired by

Gulf and Western Industries Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. (stylized as Gulf+Western) was an American conglomerate. The company originally focused on manufacturing and resource extraction, but it began purchasing a number of entertainment companies beginning in 1966 ...

. The company became the television division of Paramount Pictures Corporation in July, retaining the Desilu name until the end of that year.Patrick J. White, ''The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier'' p. 117, 141. New York: Avon Books, 1991. Desilu Sales, in turn, merged with Paramount's syndication division to become Paramount Television Sales. From 1966 to 1967, Gulf+Western acquired

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

. In 1968, Paramount Television, formerly Desilu, was established as the studio's television production unit.Patrick J. White, ''The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier'' p. 141. New York: Avon Books, 1991. In 1977,

Paramount Television Service The Paramount Television Service (or PTVS for short and also known as Paramount Programming Service) was the name of a proposed but ultimately unrealized " fourth television network" from the U.S. film studio Paramount Pictures (then a unit of ...

was formed. In 1982, Paramount Television Group and Paramount Domestic Television and Video Programming was established. In September 1989, Gulf+Western was reincorporated as Paramount Communications, Inc.. On March 11, 1994, Viacom acquired Paramount Communications. In 1995, Viacom launched the United Paramount Network ( UPN) with

Chris-Craft Industries Chris-Craft Industries, Inc., formerly National Automotive Fibers, Inc., was a publicly held American corporation that was traded on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges. In 1962, the company adopted the name of one of its acquisitions, Chris ...

. On August 10, 2004, Viacom merged the international television banners of CBS Broadcast International and Paramount International Television to form

CBS Studios International Paramount Global Content Distribution is the international television distribution arm of American media conglomerate, Paramount Global, originally established in 1962 as the international distribution division of Desilu Productions. With the s ...

. On September 7, 2004, Viacom merged CBS Productions and Paramount Network Television to form a new entity of Paramount Network Television, also known as CBS Paramount Television Entertainment Group, with CBS Productions becoming an in-name-only unit. On December 31, 2005, as the CBS/Viacom split took effect, CBS inherited Paramount's television program library, with the second incarnation of Viacom keeping Paramount's films, the

MTV Networks Paramount Media Networks is the division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of its television channels and online brands. The division was originally founded as MTV Networks in 1984, named after MTV. It would be known under this ...

and the

BET Networks Black Entertainment Television LLC (Trade name, doing business as the BET Media Group, and formerly known as BET Networks) is an American television company currently owned by American media conglomerate Paramount Global under its CBS Entertainmen ...

Formation

On January 17, 2006,

CEO Les Moonves announced that Paramount Television would be renamed CBS Paramount Television as of that day, and the network division becoming CBS Paramount Network Television, and the domestic distribution arm becoming CBS Paramount Domestic Television. On September 26, 2006, CBS Corporation merged its television distribution arms— King World, CBS Paramount International Television and CBS Paramount Domestic Television—to form

CBS Television Distribution CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Paramount Domestic Television and CBS Television Distribution) is the television broadcast syndication arm of CBS Studios, a division of the CBS Entertainment Group, in turn a division of Paramount Global, ...

. CBS Home Entertainment was then established as a subsidiary of the latter. On May 17, 2009, the Paramount name was dropped after a 3½-year loan of its use from sister company Viacom, forming CBS Television Studios.

National Amusements National Amusements, Inc. is an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts. The company owned 69 theaters and 667 screens throughout the United Stat ...

retained majority control of both CBS and the second Viacom. For a short time, many of Paramount's theatrical films were distributed domestically by

(the new name for the distribution arm as of 2007). Paramount Home Entertainment continues to distribute home video sales of CBS shows through the CBS DVD brand. From 2009 until 2011, all shows produced by the company aired on either CBS or The CW. In the past, Paramount Television produced shows for all networks, but especially had a good relationship with ABC (much as Universal Television had a good relationship with eventual sister network NBC). ''The Cleaner'', which aired on A&E until September 2009, was the most recent show from the company to air on a network other than CBS or

(which is ironic when NBC/ABC's ownership of A&E is taken into account). This was until BET began airing new episodes of ''The Game'' in 2011. In 2012,

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

began airing ''

Common Law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

''. CBS Television Studios does not directly produce any shows appearing on Showtime, a premium cable television network co-owned with the studio. Instead, sister company Showtime Entertainment handles in-house productions for the network. However, CBS Television Distribution and its international arm handle syndication distribution for these shows if they ever appear in syndication. On October 25, 2018, CBS Television Studios announced the opening of a new animation division, CBS Eye Animation Productions. A new ''Star Trek'' series entitled '' Star Trek: Lower Decks'' was announced simultaneously.

ViacomCBS re-merger; rebranding as CBS Studios

It was announced on August 13, 2019, that parent company CBS Corporation would reunite with Viacom to form a combined media company and be renamed ViacomCBS (now known as

). The merger closed on December 4. For the first time in nearly fourteen years, Paramount Global encompasses the Paramount Pictures film studio, the current incarnation of its television division, and CBS's production studio under one umbrella. On October 8, 2020, it was announced that CBS Television Studios had been renamed CBS Studios as part of a unification of branding elements between CBS divisions, citing that use of the word "Television" in the name was antiquated due to its position of producing programming for multiple platforms.

Filmography (2009–present)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cbs Television Studios Television production companies of the United States Paramount Global subsidiaries Companies based in Los Angeles 2006 establishments in California American companies established in 2006 Mass media companies established in 2006