Dozens of Stars Including Petersen To Honour CBS

William Petersen will be among the more than 100 stars paying tribute to CBS when the network celebrates its 75th birthday next month.

The performers and broadcasters will appear on CBS AT 75, a three-hour special scheduled to be broadcast live from New York's Manhattan Center on Sunday, November 2nd at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. The extravaganza will be shown on tape at 8 in other time zones, according to CBS.com.

The network will showcase personalities associated with its more than seven decades of entertainment, including sports broadcasters and news anchors. Petersen will be joined by M*A*S*H's Alan Alda, Cheers' Ted Danson, Dallas Larry Hagman, Mission: Impossible's Martin Landau and The Dick Van Dyke Show's Mary Tyler Moore among many others.

The Hollywood Reporter, which ran a photo from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as an example of the network's current success, said that "CBS demonstrates that a television network can be most things to most people, without watering down its product."

"CBS remains all over the demographic map: a little Survivor here, an vEverybody Loves Raymond there — and then, over yonder, the Crime Scene Investigation duo and burgeoning hit Cold Case.

CSI executive producer Anthony Zuiker said he was honoured to be in the company of other previous network successes.

"I mean, Gunsmoke and Dallas are legendary shows; that CSI has been able to change television for the better and bring it to the next level is a little bit amazing to me," he said.

Zuiker's CSI production partner Jerry Bruckheimer credited CEO Leslie Moonves and entertainment president Nancy Tellem as "the real reason that this network remains on top."

CBS has an article on the planned festivities here, while The Hollywood Reporter's history of the network is here. Both have a more complete listing of news and sports personalities and television actors who will appear on the November special.

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