After the two sides went on a stalemate on talks over fees, Time Warner Cable relented to the request of CBS to keep the network on air. Time Warner initially announced a blackout of CBS after there was a failure on both parties to reach an agreement. Had the blackout occurred, the cable company's 3.5 million subscribers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas would have not seen popular CBS shows like "Big Brother".

A spokeswoman for the cable operator said that negotiations between CBS and Time Warner continued well through midnight. CEO of CBS Leslie Moonves earlier told reporters that there were signs of progress. "We still believe our content is worth a lot of money," he added. After the deadlock, Time Warner initially said that CBS' demands were "out of line and unfair." The cable operator also said, "They want Time Warner Cable to pay more than others pay for the same programming."