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CBS and the Strategic Script (A): Launch...

Palomba, Anthony;S...

Case

CBS and the Strategic Script (A): Launching the NLP Dashboard

Palomba, Anthony; Shaloudegi, Koushyar

BC-0327 | Published August 17, 2026 | 13 Pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

Product Details

This case, the first in a two-part series (with “CBS and the Strategic Script (B)” [UVA-BC-0328]), is intended to help students examine a question that is increasingly central across industries, and particularly acute in media and entertainment: What happens when analytical tools move from supporting judgment to reshaping authority? Janell Oni, vice president of drama development at CBS Studios, Inc. (CBS), is introduced to a new natural language processing (NLP) dashboard by Camilla Lopez, CBS’s chief data scientist. The dashboard analyzes dialogue features in scripts to predict next-episode viewership and can be used in green-lighting, marketing (e.g., trailers), and midcourse adjustments to shows. In this case, Oni faces internal pressure to prove the tool’s value while managing skepticism from Blake Tanner, the president of development, who worries analytics will standardize creativity and “kill good ideas before they breathe.” Tanner authorizes a pilot test on five scripts, and Oni must decide whether and how CBS should integrate the dashboard into development decisions, especially given CBS’s strategic need to attract younger audiences without losing its legacy base. What should Oni recommend for dashboard use in development? What operating conditions must be in place to prevent “decision support” from becoming “decision authority”? The technical note "TV Business and Deal Mechanisms" (UVA-S-0496) provides useful companion reading, explaining the production, financing, licensing, and distribution structures that underpin the television industry and provide context for CBS's strategic and content-development decisions.

- Evaluate the strategic benefits and risks of using AI and predictive analytics to support creative decision-making. - Assess the capabilities and limitations of an NLP-based predictive tool and determine how its outputs should inform managerial judgment. - Analyze the organizational and stakeholder tensions that arise when data-driven tools are introduced into traditionally intuition- and relationship-driven processes. - Develop an implementation approach that balances data-driven insights with creative judgment, experimentation, and human expertise. - Recommend how CBS should use the NLP dashboard to support content development while addressing changing audience preferences and competitive pressures.