Sean McManus has had little time to reflect on his nearly 27 1/2-year tenure as CBS Sports anchor. This past month there was the men’s NCAA tournament and this weekend coverage of the Masters.
If anything, McManus has approached the last six months since he announced his retirement with a greater sense of gratitude. McManus’ final event as chairman of CBS Sports is at the tournament synonymous with the network.
“I’ve tried to absorb them even more than I usually do, and I appreciate the incredible opportunities that I’ve had,” McManus said during an interview last week with The Associated Press. “Some look back, but they look back with nothing but pride and fondness for both the events I was lucky enough to cover and the team I assembled.”
McManus, who turned 69 in February, began considering retirement two years ago. With CBS carrying 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’ hand-picked successor.
McManus’ career began at an early age when he got a front-row seat to sports production, attending events with his father, the late Jim McKay, who hosted ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” and covered 12 Olympics.
McKay also worked for CBS from 1950-61 and hosted coverage of the Masters from 1957-60. This is the 68th consecutive year for the Masters on CBS, making it the longest current association between a network and sports an event.
“You think about 74 years when the McManus family has their fingerprints on an event. It’s pretty cool to think about three quarters of a century. His father had a mark on the tournament. Sean had a huge run at this tournament for 28 years. It’s pretty incredible,” said Jim Nantz, CBS’ lead NFL and golf announcer, who also called the Final Four from 1991 to 2023.
McManus began 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 programming 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 served as president of CBS News and CBS Sports from 2005-11 before being named chairman of CBS Sports in February 2011.
“Very few people, if any, have impacted the sports media industry so much. On top of that, he’s the epitome of class,” Berson said.
McManus came to CBS Sports when it was basically just a weekend program. This grew into a cable TV network, website and digital streaming.
Neil Pilson. who was president of CBS Sports from 1981-94, is among McManus’ many admirers for the way he navigates the changing landscape.
“I see the business now as 10 times more difficult, and Sean has navigated a much more complex business environment certainly as well or better than I could,” he said.
McManus’ most notable accomplishments were bringing the NFL back to the network in 1998 and partnering with Turner Sports to host the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
CBS was in many ways in the sports wasteland from 1994-97 when there was no NFL. It gutted the sports department and pushed CBS from first to third in primetime and switched affiliate channels in major cities.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti, who was with CBS Sports from 1997 to 2008, said not a day went by in his first year when he and McManus didn’t talk about returning to the NFL.
“For someone who just got there, they really trusted him. The real skill was that Sean motivated the leaders at CBS to close the deal,” he said.
CBS’s winning bid in 1998 was $500 million a year. His current deal runs through 2033 at $2.1 billion per season. With the NFL’s help promoting programming, CBS returned as the prime-time network leader.
“It’s almost impossible, probably insurmountable, to have a broadcast network without the NFL,” McManus said. “It drives all your distribution deals. It is an advertising vehicle. That’s huge. And I think the broadcast model today depends a lot on sports in general and the NFL specifically.”
McManus has officiated in nine Super Bowls, including Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco in February. The game was the most-watched program in US television history, averaging 123.7 million viewers across television and streaming platforms.
Roger Goodell, an integral part of the NFL’s television deal negotiating team since before he became commissioner in 2006, said McManus has long been a trusted adviser on broadcast matters, even when it did not directly affect 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 kind of person who would have a very honest and insightful point of view.”
McManus’ decision to team up with Turner for March Madness was motivated by two things: the tournament was losing money to CBS, and dividing the nation into eight regions without everyone having access to all the games was outdated.
Beginning with the 2011 tournament, CBS and Turner’s commercial team worked together as CBS’ Clark Kellogg shared the studio with TNT’s Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith.
The partnership also includes alternating coverage of the Final Four by the network. TBS and TNT carried the title game for the first time in 2016. Beginning next year, each network will pay an average of $550 million a year through 2032.
McManus also introduced CBS to soccer with the Champions League and NWSL. The NWSL signed a sweeping rights deal that expanded its distribution to 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 year in a row.
“They saw us as the future of the sports audience, and because of that, they extended the boundaries of their agreement with us,” said NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman. “When I took the job, I challenged them to have our championship in prime time and what a difference that would make to us. And in the last two years of that deal, they’ve been working to make it happen.”
McManus leaves CBS with all of its critical properties locked up for the long term. In addition to the NFL and March Madness, the NWSL runs through 2027, the Big Ten and UEFA Champions League rights continue 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 division and it’s very good for me.”
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