Susan Zirinsky Biography – Susan Zirinsky Wiki
Susan Zirinsky is an American journalist. She is the President of See It Now Studios. Her work includes overseeing the production, development, and how original docuseries and documentaries are distributed for CBS and ViacomCbs. Paramount and other third-party platforms.
She was born in the United States. She then undertook her studies at the American University in Washington D.C where she graduated cum laude. In 2018, she was also awarded the Deans Award by the AU School of Communication. She began her career at CBS News working as a part-time desk assistant in the CBS Washington Bureau in 1972 while attending college at American University. In October 1973 while alone in the newsroom, word came by that President Richard Nixon had fired his attorney general, the so-called “Saturday Night Massacre.” She found herself at the center of a huge story according to the CBS website.
Afterward, Zirinsky became the associate producer for “The CBS Morning News” and then a producer on “The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” she then became a White House producer and covered both the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan presidencies. She traveled with the two presidents worldwide producing reports with Bob Simon, Bob Schieffer, Lesley Stahl, Ed Bradley, and Bill Plante for various broadcasts. In 1987, she received a promotion to be the senior producer for the “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather” in Washington.
In the midst of covering the Democratic National Convention, Academy Award-winning producer James L. Brooks interviewed her about her job in 1984. Following that, while serving at CBS News, she became the technical advisor/associate producer for Brooks’ film “Broadcast News,” starring Holly Hunter as a Washington network news producer.
Zirinsky was assigned to Beijing, China to run CBS News coverage in 1989. The coverage was to be the first visit of a Russian President to China in 30 years. It resulted in a student uprising in Tiananmen Square.CBS News broadcast the demonstrations and violence live from Beijing exclusively for several days until the Chinese government ordered the satellite transmitter shutdown. She was then sent to Panama as producer-in-charge as the U.S. invasion of that country occurred. A few months later she was dispatched to cover Operation Desert Storm, which was launched by the U.S. military and its allies following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Ever the fierce competitor, she maneuvered the first network team to arrive with the allied forces when they took Kuwait back from Iraqi soldiers.
She relocated from Washington to New York as a senior producer of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in 1990. Consequently, she became the senior broadcast producer. She became the director of CBS News political coverage, and then executive producer of CBS News “Campaign ’96 in 1992. At the time, she was also CBS News’ senior producer at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, where she oversaw the CBS News and Sports news desk for the Network. She served as executive producer of the CBS News magazine “Eye to Eye with Connie Chung” in 1994.
Zirinsky was the senior executive producer of the award-winning “48 Hours” and was responsible for numerous CBS News breaking news specials. She was also the senior executive producer of “48 Hours: NCIS” and the senior executive producer of the CBS primetime series “Whistleblower.” A prolific producer on a variety of issues and subjects, her work has been lauded by critics and honored by her peers with journalism’s top honors, including Emmys, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and the George Foster Peabody Award. She has executive produced many highly praised and compelling news documentaries such as “The Spymasters – CIA in the Crosshairs” for Showtime in 2015, co-produced with filmmakers Gideon and Jules Naudet and Chris Whipple, featuring, for the first time, interviews with all 12 living former and current heads of the CIA, appearing in one program.
For two years, she was the president and senior executive producer of CBS News. She was the first woman to hold that job in the history of the Network. She has worked for over forty years with CBS News. As president of CBS News, Zirinsky oversaw an overhaul of the news division, including launching the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” and moving the broadcast to Washington, D.C., where it is the only broadcast network nightly newscast to be based in the nation’s capital. She reimagined the “CBS This Morning” anchor team with co-hosts Gayle King, Anthony Mason, and Tony Dokoupil and worked to grow CBS News’ multi-platform presence in 2019. She also named new executive leadership and several new executive producers of several flagship programs, including “60 Minutes”, “CBS This Morning” (now “CBS Mornings”), “CBS Evening News”, “48 Hours”, and a newly created CBS News Special Events unit.
Susan Zirinsky Age
She was born on March 3, 1952, in New York, New York, United States.
Susan Zirinsky Husband
Is Susan Zirinsky married? She is married to her husband, Joseph Peyronnin an Emmy Award-winning reporter. The couple got married in 1984.
Susan Zirinsky Parents
The renowned producer is the daughter of Richard Zirinsky (her father and her mother Cynthia (née Finkelstein) Zirinsky. She had a bother who passed on in April 2018, after battling lung disease for 11 years.
Susan Zirinsky Daughter
She never had any children of her own (biologically). She has one child, a daughter named Zoe. Susan and her husband adopted Zoe from China.
Susan Zirinsky Instagram
The veteran producer’s Instagram handle is @susanzirinsky.
