Suzanne Smith is director for CBS Sports coverage for The NFL on CBS. She also is director of coverage of college basketball, including the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.
Smith graduated from Temple University in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in radio, television and film. While in college, Smith played volleyball and softball for Temple, having received the first volleyball scholarship awarded by the university. She credits a university-sponsored internship at WPHL with helping her to make connections in the world of television production. The three-time Emmy Award-winner joined CBS Sports in 1983 as a production assistant and quickly took on roles as an associate producer and associate director. Her first directing credit came in 1988 for coverage of the indoor volleyball championships. In 1989, she received a Directors Guild of America Award.
Smith has since worked on a variety of events, including the 1992, 1994 and 1996 Olympic Winter Games. She has produced and directed coverage for college football, golf, tennis, boxing, track and field, NBA, car racing and cycling (Tour de France).
She also served as replay director of CBS coverage of Super Bowl xxxv and xxxvm. For the network’s coverage of Super Bowl XLI, Smith produced the Baghdad Bowl segment for The Super Bowl Today featuring a touch football game between U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.
In 2004, she served as director for Turner Sports coverage of the NBA Playoffs. Smith directed Oxygen’s WNBA coverage during the summer of 2003. She also has directed the Live Academy Awards Special for WE Entertainment.
In addition to her CBS roles in NFL and basketball coverage, Smith now is the coordinating producer for CBS Sports’ coverage of skiing, mountain biking and the American Le Mans Series. She also serves as director for the Green Bay Packers pre -season games and for the U.S. Open Tennis Championships international feed.
Smith serves on the boards of the Empire State Pride Agenda and the Plancher Orthopedic Foundation. She is a volunteer for PASE, the Partnership for After School Education. For the past eight years, she has been a mentor with the Connecticut School Mentor Program.