Corday Named to No. 2 Spot in Overseeing CBS Prime-Time Shows

Barbara Corday, former president of Columbia/Embassy Television and co-creator of the long-running series “Cagney & Lacey,” was named vice president of prime-time programs at CBS Friday.

The appointment, announced by network entertainment president Kim LeMasters, puts Corday in the No. 2 position behind LeMasters in overseeing the prime-time schedule and gives her broader programming responsibilities than any other woman has ever had at one of the three major television networks.

Corday’s hiring comes on the heels of another major executive change at CBS: On July 13, the network named CBS News President Howard Stringer to succeed Gene F. Jankowski as president of the CBS Broadcast Group, which oversees the entertainment division.

Corday said she believed that the network made the decisions concurrently: “I have to believe that’s true,” she said. “I actually had my first lunch with Kim (LeMasters) one or two days after Howard Stringer’s appointment.”

The second-in-command position at CBS Entertainment has remained open since LeMasters was promoted last November. At that time, the network, which had recently undergone massive layoffs in its news and entertainment departments, said it had no plans to fill the job.

In an interview Friday, Corday said that the decision to hire someone to assist LeMasters was a natural development.

“When you are downsizing a company, you like to think there are certain positions that can be eliminated, but, having worked in similar situations at the studios, you often realize that you have to fill them,” she said. “I think Kim has realized, and has said it, that this is just an enormous job, and a No. 2 person is necessary.”

Corday acknowledged that taking the position at the beleaguered network, which ended last season’s prime-time race in third place for the first time, “is both scary and challenging.

“This is what’s exciting, this is what gives you butterflies in the stomach and makes you want to hurry in to work every morning,” Corday continued. “I think that’s the fun of it for me and for Kim LeMasters.

“It is too soon to have specific plans; what’s attractive to me about it is . . . there are only three networks, so it’s a very competitive job. I have always been in the series and TV movie business, so I feel that I can bring some expertise to it.

“I have been a writer, a producer, a story editor, a studio executive and a network executive,” she added. “I think I have a good overview of the business. The other jobs that I have talked to other companies about didn’t have all the different parts that this job has; there was always something missing for me. At Columbia, I really had my fingers in everything, and that’s what I found fun and exciting.”

Corday, 43, a New York native, was appointed president of Columbia/Embassy Television in 1984, having joined the company as an independent producer and president of her own company, “Can’t Sing Can’t Dance Productions” in 1982. She left Columbia last October following the consolidation of Columbia/Embassy Television and Tri-Star Pictures’ television department.

Corday, who declined to discuss the weaknesses in CBS current schedule, said she felt “very strongly” that a woman executive could bring a new perspective to CBS’ prime-time programming and maintained that her talents and LeMasters’ will complement each other.

“I think we just have very different personalities, and very different backgrounds,” she said. “Generally speaking, although ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Frank’s Place’ are certainly the exceptions, he tends more toward male, action-oriented shows, the ‘Wiseguys’ and the ‘Equalizers.’ My strengths are more in the character-oriented, emotion-based shows. I think both are necessary in programming a network.”

While there are women at all three networks who oversee various areas of programming, such as daytime, children’s and miniseries, Corday’s responsibilities will be much wider. Marcia Carsey, now an executive producer of “The Cosby Show” and “A Different World,” was senior vice president of prime-time series for ABC in 1979-80, but unlike Corday in her new position, did not oversee the departments that develop TV movies, miniseries and specials.

Although Corday said laughingly that the difficulty for women trying to rise in the network ranks was “a subject for another conversation,” she added that “once you are there, the challenge is the same as it is to any executive. It’s getting there which is the problem for women.”

Corday bristled when asked whether her appointment represented any lack of confidence on the part of CBS management in LeMasters, as has been suggested in earlier news reports that the network might hire her. CBS slipped into third place during his reign in the entertainment division, and none of the shows acknowledged to be developed from his ideas--including the multiple Emmy nominees “Frank’s Place” and “Beauty and the Beast,” as well as the Vietnam series “Tour of Duty”--were ratings hits.

“I think that’s just outrageous. I think it’s people making up news because there’s nothing else to write about during the writers’ strike,” she said. “I think it’s people making up news, I resent it and I can’t imagine (that) Kim doesn’t resent it too.”

Corday began her entertainment career with a small theatrical agency in New York and later worked there as a publicist. In 1967, she moved to Los Angeles and joined Mann Scharf Associates.

In 1972, Corday turned to full-time script writing with partner Barbara Avedon, with whom she wrote the TV movie “Cagney & Lacey,” which developed into the series that ran for six seasons on CBS. She worked for a time at ABC as vice president of comedy series development at ABC.