CBS Chief Leslie Moonves: 'We'll Try to be Less Smug'

Leslie Moonves

CBS Corp. president and CEO Leslie Moonves once again took issue with Jimmy Kimmel's jabs at CBS as the geriatric network. But he did admit to being “flattered” that the ABC late-night host characterized No. 1 CBS as “smug motherf----rs” at Kimmel's annual upfront routine.

“I guess that means we're winning,” Moonves said during the network's pre-upfront press conference Wednesday morning at CBS headquarters in New York, according to a story at The Hollywood Reporter.

“We'll try to be a little less smug and a little more gracious. But that's hard for me, as you know.”

But Moonves took some shots of his own at the broadcast competition, which touted various multiplatform initiatives, granular demographic data and new measurement schemes.

“Anybody who spends 20 minutes talking about multiplatform at their upfront does not have much else to sell,” said Moonves, adding that CBS beats its broadcast competition by 4 million to 5 million viewers and will finish the season as the No. 1 network among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic for the first time in more than 10 years.

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