McManus hires Ewert as No. 2 at CBS Sports
Ewert, as expected, effectively replaces Rick Gentile, 47, who will remain at the web as senior VP of production to oversee the NCAA college basketball tournament, which begins Thursday, and next winter's Nagano Olympics (Daily Variety, Feb. 20).
"Hopefully, my presence here and my direction here will be to provide new focus and, especially, new possibilities to the production staff," Ewert, 45, said in an interview Tuesday, adding that he hoped the changes will "bring new energy" to the division as it seeks to reclaim marquee sports properties. His official start date is April 1.
Ewert, an Emmy-winning producer, most recently was deputy managing director and head of production for At-lanta Olympic Broadcasting 1996, which produced coverage for 170 worldwide broadcast partners. He also worked at NBC Sports for 18 years, producing the pay-per-view TripleCast of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the anthology "SportsWorld," among other programs.
The new top producer was recruited by new CBS Sports prexy Sean McManus, with whom Ewert worked on "SportsWorld" while both were at NBC. McManus joined CBS in December from Intl. Management Group, where he was a top rights negotiator, and is quickly leaving his imprint on the Eye web.
