CBS Has a New Head of Programming: David Nevins of Showtime

The Showtime chief executive David Nevins is getting a piece of Leslie Moonves’ old job at the CBS Corp., the company announced Thursday.

Nevins has been elevated to chief content officer at CBS, a new position that will give him oversight of the network’s programming, CBS Television Studios and the company’s streaming service, CBS All Access. Nevins will report to Joe Ianniello, the acting chief executive of the CBS Corp., who replaced Moonves last month.

The company also announced Thursday that Christina Spade, the chief financial officer of Showtime, would fill that job at CBS.

Nevins, 52, will remain in his current job at Showtime, the premium cable channel owned by CBS, with an added title: chairman.

Nevins and Spade are expanding their roles in the wake of dramatic change at the highest levels of CBS. Moonves stepped down from the company on Sept. 9, hours after The New Yorker published its second article detailing allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by multiple women. Moonves has denied the accusations.

Ianniello, the acting CBS chief, has no experience with programming, which was one of Moonves’ areas of expertise. With the promotion of Nevins, Ianniello is sending a signal to Wall Street that the network, part of a public company, will have an executive from the creative side of the business with significant experience managing producers and communicating with Hollywood.

Moonves took a strong hand in constructing the network’s lineups, and many executives at the company had worked with him for years. Months before his departure, Moonves joked at a presentation for advertisers that he was the only boss that Kelly Kahl — the president of CBS Entertainment — had ever had, “other than when he mowed his father’s lawn.”

Kahl will now report to Nevins.

Other areas of responsibility for Nevins include a portion of the CW broadcast network — a joint venture between CBS and Warner Bros. — and the company’s marketing and research departments.

Nevins, a former producer of “Friday Night Lights” and “Arrested Development,” has been at Showtime since 2010 and has been its chief executive since 2016. The cable network has aired several hit series on his watch, like “Homeland,” “Shameless” and “The Affair.”

Richard Parsons, the interim chairman of the CBS Corp.'s board, is leading the search for a permanent chief executive. Ianniello is a candidate, but the board has said it will talk with outside executives about the role.