Moonves Calls 'Carpool Karaoke' A Viral Hit

Les Moonves

During Friday's conference call with finanacial analysts CBS CEO Les Moonves stated The Late Late Show with James Corden has become a social media sensation.

According to Moonves, "every Carpool Karaoke segment he posts is a viral hit. The one he did last month with Adele is now approaching 70 million streams, the most watched YouTube clip ever by a late-night host. And since we now own both of these late-night shows, we can monetize all of this online viewing as well, a number that keeps getting bigger and bigger every week."

He also touted growth across platforms is at CBS News. "Our flagship newscasts are growing viewers faster than any other network. CBS This Morning is attracting the biggest morning audience we've had in 28 years. The show is averaging 1 million more viewers than it did when we launched our new format four years ago, making it more profitable every single year, with lots of upside in this lucrative time period. The CBS Evening News is also on a roll. During the quarter, the show delivered its largest audience in nine years."

Moonves also provided an update on the digital news network CBSN. He stated the service has attracted more viewers every single quarter since being launched in November of 2014. "During the fourth quarter, we had nearly twice as many streams as we had in the third. And engagement levels are very high, which is important to advertisers, with the average viewing session now exceeding 40 minutes." According to Moonves, viewers are 20 years younger than the ones on broadcast or cable news. "Clearly, this is where the future of news is going to be, and we are going to be there."

Moonves also touched upon the demographics to the TV news viewer:  "Cable news is over 70. Fox News, that's the right number, it's like 71 or 72. Broadcast television news -- the three networks that are doing broadcast -- is around low 60s. And we are on our CBSN -- once again, it's not a subscription. It's an advertising-based business. It is about 20 years younger.

"But once again, you have to realize in the news business, a 40-year-old is a young person. So we are really happy to have them. And there are people that currently aren't watching either cable or network, so it is getting younger. I don't think there are a lot of 20-year-olds that are watching yet, but I think that will come.