Susan Zirinsky
Zirinsky has served as executive producer of 48 Hours since July 1996.
Before that, she was executive producer of "Campaign '96" (1995-96), CBS News' election-year political coverage.
She was executive producer of the primetime CBS News magazine Eye to Eye (1994-95), after having served as the broadcast's senior broadcast producer and senior producer (1993-94).
Zirinsky was the director of CBS News' 1992 political coverage, responsible for coordinating coverage of candidates, issues and events for all CBS News broadcasts, including the presidential election. During that period, she also held the position of senior producer at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, where she was responsible for overseeing the CBS Sports News Desk.
Prior to that, Zirinsky served in several capacities for the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in New York and Washington, D.C. In New York, she was senior broadcast producer (1991-92) and senior producer (1989-91) for the broadcast.
In Washington, Zirinsky managed all feature stories and oversaw editorial content of daily hard-news events (1986-89). She first joined the CBS Evening News as a producer, primarily covering the White House during the Carter and Reagan administrations (1979-86).
Zirinsky was technical advisor for writer/director James L. Brooks on the film Broadcast News, starring Holly Hunter as a Washington network news producer.
Zirinsky also worked on other CBS News broadcasts, including the CBS Morning News and CBS Evening News weekend editions. She held a number of other assignments, including floor producer at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions from 1976 through 1988. Zirinsky was senior producer for both conventions in 1992 and has been an election-night producer since 1976.
Zirinsky's foreign experience is extensive. She traveled on every major foreign trip with Presidents Carter and Reagan and was the lead producer at every U.S.-Soviet summit during that time. In 1989, Zirinsky ran the Beijing newsroom during CBS News' critically acclaimed coverage of the student uprising and subsequent military crackdown. Earlier that year, she was lead producer for CBS News' coverage from Japan of Emperor Hirohito's funeral. She was the senior producer responsible for setting up and overseeing the network's news opeation in Kuwait while covering the Persian Gulf War, and it was under her stewardship that CBS News was the first network to enter Kuwait, just behind the allied forces.
Zirinsky joined CBS News in 1972 as a part-time production clerk. Zirinsky graduated cum laude from American University in Washington, D.C. She and her husband, Joe Peyronnin, live in New York with their daughter, Zoe.