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\n\tMatlock<\/a><\/em>\u00a0star Kathy Bates<\/a> is 77. And the inaugural \u201cCBS<\/a> Birthday Salute\u201d is celebrating the Academy Award winner\u2019s June 28\u00a0birthday with everybody. The historic broadcast network began teasing the multiple Emmy winner\u2019s birthday as early as June 13. Its social media platforms even dubbed themselves \u201cKathy Bates Stan Account.\u201d Two days before her birthday, Jason Ritter, Bates\u2019s Matlock<\/em> co-star, appeared in a reminder on CBS social platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLovebombing of the legend officially kicked off at 7 a.m. ET\/4 a.m. PT in a series of commercial breaks during live programming and across multiple CBS platforms, including Paramount+, Instagram, X, TikTok and Facebook. Tributes from Bates\u2019s many costars, including\u00a0Bad Santa 2<\/em>\u2019s Billy Bob Thornton,\u00a0A Family Affair\u00a0<\/em>castmate Brooke Shields, and\u00a0Tammy<\/em>\u00a0co-star Melissa McCarthy, as well as\u00a0CBS Mornings\u00a0<\/em>personalities Gayle King, Nate Burleson, and Vladimir Duthiers, are among the many highlights from the celebration ending at 11 p.m. ET\/8 p.m. PT. Fans also get in on the action, with one Kathy Bates admirer memorably dressing up as her iconic\u00a0Misery<\/em>\u00a0character.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe were just brainstorming ideas of what we can do in between our shows to make the experience of watching CBS just more fun and we thought, \u2018what if we started to celebrate some of the birthdays of our talent?\u2019\u201d said Mike Benson, who has served as president and chief marketing officer at CBS since 2019, exclusively with The Hollywood Reporter.<\/em> \u201cSomeone had noticed Kathy Bates\u2019s birthday was coming up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tCelebrating Bates \u2014 who surprised both critics and fans in her starring role in the hit series \u201cMatlock\u201d as a lawyer who revives her career in her 70s posing as Madeline \u201cMatty\u201d Matlock to punish the big firm she blames for her daughter\u2019s death due to an opioid overdose \u2014 took off like wildfire. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on it for about three months now,\u201d said Benson. \u201cAnd the reason it\u2019s taken so long is it took a lot of coordination. We were surprised at how many different individuals around the company wanted to participate in it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen we started to develop it, we went to news, we went to sports, we went to a variety of different divisions of the company, and they all wanted to participate,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe brought in a lot of different partners to help us build it. So, at first, it just started as something that we thought would be small, and then it just started to grow into something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMore than two dozen stars and personalities created videos for Bates. Social amplification also takes place across other social channels within Paramount+, which also features Matlock<\/em> character-themed Avatars. To celebrate Bates, CBS partners Candier (IG: @the_candier) are offering a $10 discount for their birthday candle and Paper Source (IG: @papersource) created a custom reel of envelope art inspired by her\u00a0Matlock<\/em>\u00a0character. CBS is also making $10,000 worth of charitable donations in her honor.\u00a0<\/p>\n