President See It Now Studios (2021–present) President and Senior Executive Producer of CBS News (2019–2021) Senior Executive Producer, 48 Hours (1996–2019)
In 2013, Zirinsky was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Television & Film Awards.[3]
As CBS News President and Senior Executive Producer, Zirinsky was responsible for CBS News broadcasts and the division's newsgathering across all platforms including television, CBS News Radio, CBSNews.com and CBSN.[4][5] Zirinsky is the first female President and Senior Executive Producer of CBS News.[6][7]
Personal life
Zirinsky was born in New York City and raised in Neponsit, Queens, the daughter of Cynthia (née Finkelstein) and Richard Zirinsky (1915–2002). Her sister, Barbara Zirinsky Faden, died in 1999 at age 50 of cancer.[8] Her mother founded Gracie Square Hospital in New York City and works as a mental health care professional.[9] Her father was a New York City real-estate developer.[10][11] Named after her parents for their philanthropy, the Richard and Cynthia Zirinsky Center for Bipolar Disorder is located at Mount Sinai Beth Israel.[9] She married Joseph Peyronnin in 1984. Peyronnin is also a journalist and has won an Emmy Award. The couple covered the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In 1996 they adopted a baby girl from China, naming her Zoe.[12][13]
Zirinsky graduated from the School of Communications at American University in Washington, D.C., and made a career in television journalism.[14] In 2009, she delivered the 123rd Commencement Address, School of Communication at American University.[15]
Career at CBS
Zirinsky, then a 20-year-old sophomore at American University, joined the CBS News Washington Bureau in 1972. She worked as a weekend production clerk. In her senior year, she helped write stories about the Watergate Scandal. She continued working in various roles for CBS after graduation.
Zirinsky was assigned to cover the White House for CBS, which she did for over a decade. During this time she worked with Marcy McGinnis and Lesley Stahl, who became her mentor. She has also specialized in covering political campaigns and war assignments. She went with Dan Rather to Kuwait during the Gulf War, where she produced the news, and Rather reported live from Kuwait City.
Zirinsky was the senior executive producer of '48 Hours'. She also produces breaking news specials for CBS News. Her frequent collaborators include Bob Schieffer.[16][17][18] Her nickname in the newsroom is "Z".[19][20][21]
On March 1, 2019, Zirinsky became the first female President and Senior Executive Producer of CBS News, replacing David Rhodes.[22][5] Rhodes will step down as president of CBS News amid falling ratings and the fallout from revelations from an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against CBS News figures, Rhodes and the CBS network said.[23] She was first offered the position in 2011, however she turned the job down because it would have taken her away from the work she loves, which is producing.[21]
Zirinsky is described as a media icon,[24] legendary,[25] and trail-blazing.[26] She is the second woman to be appointed head of a broadcast news network.[23] After Zirinsky was named president and senior executive producer of CBS News, employees said the mood was upbeat and hoped the appointment would boost morale after a scandal-plagued year.[27] Zirinsky takes her assignment when CBS' longtime chief Les Moonves was forced out following a series of reports accusing him of sexual harassment.[28][29][30]Charlie Rose was fired because of the same revelations[31][32] and Jeff Fager, chief of 60 Minutes, was also forced out during Rose's departure.[33][34]
The New York Times reported the employees at CBS greeted Zirinsky with a "roaring ovation."[35]Gayle King, co-anchor, CBS This Morning, was quoted as saying, "I was doing the happy dance. ... She is a badass in every sense of the word."[26]
The profession lacks female executives. In 167 years, The New York Times has had one female, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal are at zero. NBC News and Fox News have each had one female news executive and USA Today has had three female top editors, including the current Editor in Chief Nicole Carroll.[26] On January 10, 2019, Showtime announced changes in the wake of Moonves being ousted at CBS. Jana Winograde became one of the new presidents of entertainment at the cable network.[36]
Over the years, Zirinsky has worked with Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl and Ed Bradley. Zirinsky said she has never forgotten them and in her office there are photos of all three newscasters.[16] In her role as president and Senior Executive Producer of CBS News, she is described as having to clean up after the bad boys,[21][37] restore credibility at CBS, improve the ratings for the news programs that have seen their ratings slump, and chart the future for CBS News. With the announcement of Ryan Kadro, executive producer of CBS This Morning stepping down, high on her to-do list is finding a new executive producer for CBS This Morning. She was also charged with naming a full time permanent executive producer for 60 Minutes.[38]
After CBS
Susan Zirinsky is president of See It Now Studios, which she founded in 2021 after leaving the CBS News presidency.[39]See It Now Studios is part of Paramount Global, which also owns CBS. The studio produced 51 hours of original nonfiction content in its first year primarily for the streaming service Paramount+."[40]
Broadcast News film
The 1987 film Broadcast News was based on Zirinsky's experience at the CBS News Washington Bureau in the early 1980s. She worked with director and screenwriter James L. Brooks and served as associate producer and technical advisor for the film. She also helped prepare actress Holly Hunter to portray her. Hunter job-shadowed Zirinsky and cut her hair into a bob cut to look similar to the producer. Zirinsky gave Hunter some of her clothes to wear in the film. Hunter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.[41][42]
Zirinsky has attended screenings of the film for young journalists and lectured about her career and the making of the film.[41][43]
Two of Zirinsky's projects have won Peabody Awards for Excellence, 9/11 (2002), a documentary about the World Trade Center from the point of view of firefighters from a Lower Manhattan company, and 48 Hours: Heroes Under Fire.
Zirinsky was given the First Amendment Service Award by the Radio Television and Digital News Foundation in 2003.
Zirinsky won the News & Documentary Emmy Award for her work on three 48 Hours specials, Hostage, Grave Injustice, and Perilous Journey.
In 2013, Zirinsky was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Television & Film Awards.[3]
Related Research Articles
Broadcast News is a 1987 American romantic comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by James L. Brooks. The film concerns a virtuoso television news producer who has daily emotional breakdowns, a brilliant yet prickly reporter, and the latter's charismatic but far less seasoned rival. It also stars Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, and Jack Nicholson.
Katherine Anne Couric is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, Wake Up Call. From 2013 to 2017, she was Yahoo's Global News Anchor. Couric has been a television host at all of the Big Three television networks in the United States, and in her early career she was an assignment editor for CNN. She worked for NBC News from 1989 to 2006, CBS News from 2006 to 2011, and ABC News from 2011 to 2014. In 2021, she appeared as a guest host for the game show Jeopardy!, the first woman to host the flagship American version of the show in its history.
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the CBS Evening News, CBS Mornings, news magazine programs CBS News Sunday Morning, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours, and Sunday morning political affairs program Face the Nation. CBS News Radio produces hourly newscasts for hundreds of radio stations, and also oversees CBS News podcasts like The Takeout Podcast. CBS News also operates the CBS News Streaming Network, a 24-hour digital news network.
Face the Nation is a weekly news and morning public affairs program airing Sundays on the CBS radio and television network. Created by Frank Stanton in 1954, Face the Nation is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television.
Lila Diane Sawyer is an American television broadcast journalist known for anchoring major programs on two networks including ABC World News Tonight, Good Morning America, 20/20, and Primetime newsmagazine while at ABC News. During her tenure at CBS News, she hosted CBS Morning and was the first woman correspondent on 60 Minutes. Prior to her journalism career, she was a member of U.S. President Richard Nixon's White House staff and assisted in his post-presidency memoirs. Presently she works for ABC News producing documentaries and interview specials.
Daniel Louis Schorr was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his television journalism.
Leslie Roy Moonves is an American media executive who was the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation from 2003 until his resignation in September 2018 following numerous allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault and abuse. He has been married to TV personality Julie Chen since 2004.
Julie Suzanne Chen Moonves is an American television personality, news anchor, and producer for CBS. She has been the host of the American version of the CBS reality-television program Big Brother since its debut in July 2000.
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48 Hours, also known as 48 Hours Mystery, is an American documentary news magazine television show broadcast on CBS. The show has been broadcast on the network since January 19, 1988 in the United States. The show airs Saturdays at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, as part of the network's placeholder Crimetime Saturday block; as such, it is currently one of only two remaining first-run prime time shows airing Saturday nights on the major U.S. broadcast television networks. The show sometimes airs two-hour editions or two consecutive one-hour editions, depending on the subject involved or to serve as counterprogramming against other networks. Judy Tygard was named senior executive producer in January 2019, replacing Susan Zirinsky, who served as executive producer since 1996 until her early 2019 appointment as president of CBS News.
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David Rhodes is an American media executive. He was named Executive Chairman of the Sky News Group in February 2023. In July 2021, he was hired to lead international business development at Sky, a subsidiary of US cable company Comcast Corp. He served as the president of CBS News from 2011 until 2019. He was the youngest network news president in the history of American television.
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1 2 Grant, James (May 10, 2017). "MHA-NYC Gala Calls Upon Public to Start Talking Openly About Mental Health"(PDF). vibrant.org. Retrieved January 7, 2019. The event will also pay tribute to the Zirinsky family, whose commitment to improving mental health services has spanned 50 years and 3 generations. Cynthia Zirinsky -- founder of Gracie Square Hospital and the Richard and Cynthia Zirinsky Center for Bipolar Disorder at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital -- will be honored along with her daughter, legendary CBS News producer Susan Zirinsky; her son-in-law, TV news innovator, Joe Peyronnin; and her granddaughter, Morgan Stanley executive Cynthia Eckes. For 5 decades of leadership and generous philanthropy, a member of the Zirinsky family has served continually on the MHA-NYC Board, changing the face of mental health care.
↑ "American University School of Communication Celebrates 25 Years". american.edu. October 24, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2019. SOC honored alumna Susan Zirinsky as it celebrated 25 years as an independent school and generations of making media that matter. Susan Zirinsky, senior executive producer of the award-winning crime and justice series 48 Hours and senior executive producer of the primetime series 48 Hours: NCIS, Whistleblower, and of the 2013 documentary series Brooklyn D.A., was honored at the event with the SOC Dean's Award. It was presented 'in recognition of her role as a trailblazer, a mentor, and a transformational leader,' said SOC Dean Jeff Rutenbeck.
↑ Steinberg, Brian (January 7, 2019). "Susan Zirinsky Gears Up for New Era at CBS News". variety.com. Variety Media, LLC. Retrieved January 8, 2019. Susan Zirinsky, the CBS News executive known to her colleagues as 'Z,' is getting ready for a heady tenure as the new president of CBS News. Gayle King, one of her top anchors, on live TV on Monday morning described her as a 'badass.'
1 2 3 Battaglio, Stephen (January 7, 2019). "Susan Zirinsky, legendary figure at CBS, makes history as first female executive to head news division". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 8, 2019. On Monday morning, incoming CBS News President Susan Zirinsky made an entrance worthy of a rock star. Loud cheers and applause arose from elated staff members as she stepped into the newsroom at the network's studios on Manhattan's West Side for the first time since her appointment was announced Sunday. Some of the people in the 'news hub' have worked with the producer, who is known as 'Z,' for many of her 46 years at CBS. Some were young women, who after seeing their company roiled by #MeToo scandals, were thrilled to watch the first female chief of the division take the reins.
↑ Izadi, Elahe (September 13, 2018). "'60 Minutes' chief Jeff Fager leaves CBS amid harassment accusations and threatening texts". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 8, 2019. 'This action today is not directly related to the allegations surfaced in press reports, which continue to be investigated independently,' CBS News President David Rhodes said in a memo. 'However, he violated company policy and it is our commitment to uphold those policies at every level.'
↑ Broadcast News (Movie). Amercent Films, American Entertainment Partners L.P., Gracie Films. December 25, 1987. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
↑ 9/11 (Documentary). CBS, Goldfish Pictures, Reveille Productions. March 10, 2002. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
↑ Elvis by the Presleys (Documentary, Music). Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), RCA Records, Red Eye Flight Productions. May 13, 2005. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
↑ Kramer, Nancy (Writer) Klug, Rob (Director) Zirinsky, Susan (Executive Producer) Gelman, Josh (Producer) (May 18, 2007). That's the Way It Is: Celebrating Cronkite at 90 (Documentary). CBS News. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
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