The period 1948-1950 brought major changes to network radio, as CBS hired a number of stars from NBC in what some have called "talent raids". Some of the top performers who changed networks were Jack Benny , Red Skelton , Edgar Bergen , and the husband-and-wife duo George Burns and Gracie Allen . One result of the changes was that 12 of the 15 highest-rated radio programs at the end of 1949 were on CBS. Harold Peary did not find such success, however. Peary switched to CBS, while the program in which he had starred, The Great Gildersleeve , stayed on NBC. Those changes resulted in a new program ( The Harold Peary Show ) for Peary and a new star ( Willard Waterman ) for Gildersleeve . Radio historian John Dunning commented that The Harold Peary Show "failed to gain any measure of an audience in its lone season".
