CBS Makes it Official: Leslie Moonves is Out
by Lynette Rice
Sept. 9, 2018


It’s a done deal: CBS Corp. has ousted its embattled Chairman Leslie Moonves.

In a statement released Sunday, the company announced that Chief Operating Officer Joseph Ianniello will temporarily replace Moonves, who has been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct. Six more women accused the 68-year-old executive in a new article released earlier in the day by The New Yorker.





As part of the agreement, both CBS and Moonves will immediately donate $20 million to organizations that support the #MeToo movement. Moonves will not receive any severance benefits other than what the company describes as “certain fully accrued and vested compensation and benefits.” Any future pay off will depend on the results of investigations into the myriad claims against Moonves, which he has denied.

CBS also settled its ongoing legal woes with National Amusements, Inc., which means there will be no merger of CBS and Viacom for at least two years.





Time’s Up, which launched in January in response to widespread allegations of sexual misconduct across the media and entertainment industries, said in a statement Sunday:

“Six more women have made bone-chilling allegations of abuse, harassment and retaliation against Les Moonves. We believe them. These new allegations are in addition to the previous six women who have already bravely spoken out and detailed horrific behavior from Moonves. Nineteen current and former CBS employees have also alleged that former CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager condoned sexual harassment in his division.”

“These allegations speak to a culture of toxic complicity at CBS, where the safety of women was continuously ignored to protect the careers of powerful men and the corporation,” the statement continued. “The CBS Board of Directors has an obligation to move swiftly and decisively to create a safe work environment for all and rid the company of this toxic culture.”





Among the new accusations made to The New Yorker is one by veteran television executive Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb, who worked with Moonves in the late 1980s.

Golden-Gottlieb tells The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow “that she filed a criminal complaint late last year with the Los Angeles Police Department, accusing Moonves of physically restraining her and forcing her to perform oral sex on him, and of exposing himself to her and violently throwing her against a wall in later incidents.”





In a statement to The New Yorker, Moonves acknowledged three of the six new encounters detailed by the outlet Sunday, but said they were consensual:

“The appalling accusations in this article are untrue,” the statement said. “What is true is that I had consensual relations with three of the women some 25 years ago before I came to CBS. And I have never used my position to hinder the advancement or careers of women. In my 40 years of work, I have never before heard of such disturbing accusations.”





The first six women accused Moonves of sexual misconduct in a lengthy article published in The New Yorker last month, which also suggested that the company maintains a testosterone-fueled culture where “everything feels old, the people, the furniture, the culture, the mores.”

One of the accusers is actress Illeana Douglas (Six Feet Under), who reportedly alleges she was fired from a 1997 pilot after refusing Moonves’ advances, which she says included “violent kissing” and holding her down on his office couch.





At the time of those first six misconduct accusations, Moonves released this statement to The New Yorker, which was also obtained by EW:

“Throughout my time at CBS, we have promoted a culture of respect and opportunity for all employees, and have consistently found success elevating women to top executive positions across our Company. I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances. Those were mistakes, and I regret them immensely.

But I always understood and respected — and abided by the principle — that ‘no’ means ‘no,’ and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone’s career. This is a time when we all are appropriately focused on how we help improve our society, and we at CBS are committed to being part of the solution.”





A former actor, Moonves went on to become one of the most powerful men in the industry after resuscitating CBS. His compensation reflects his value to the company: The New Yorker reports that he earned nearly $70,000,000 last year, making him one of the highest-paid executives in the world.

Moonves is married to Julie Chen, the co-host of CBS’ "The Talk" and host of the network’s long-running reality show franchise "Big Brother".

https://ew.com/news/2018/09/09/cbs-makes-it-official-leslie-moonves-is-out/

I would use words such as "sad" and "unnecessary" to describe reports like this one.

Why Les Moonves' departure is unlikely to hurt CBS' programming (http://www.vulture.com/2018/09/les-moonves-exit-cbs-analysis.html)
CBS isn't like The Weinstein Company, which completely collapsed after Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct scandal. Even though Moonves played an important role in the daily life at CBS, he leaves behind an executive team who -- should they remain in place -- continue doing what CBS does best, according to Josef Adalian. "Moonves has benefited from the tendency (by both reporters and corporate boards) to put too much value in the Great Man theory of history," says Adalian. "In fact, whatever success CBS has had the past two decades was not the result of a single designer suit-clad superhero picking hit shows and negotiating the right talent deals. A small army of Eye execs past and present were instrumental in shaping the network, both for good (Everybody Loves Raymond, NCIS, The Big Bang Theory) and ill (Kevin Can Wait). Plus, as with any network or streaming service, the real drivers of success at CBS have been the show creators and stars who make hit programs. CBS won’t be the same place without Moonves, but like Apple after Steve Jobs, it won’t collapse either. It’s telling that late last week, as multiple news outlets reported Moonves was in settlement talks, CBS’s stock price actually went up."

ALSO:

Norah O'Donnell addressed Moonves' exit on CBS This Morning: "This is really hard. It is. It’s hard for everybody at CBS News" (https://deadline.com/2018/09/norah-odonnell-les-moonves-exit-cbs-this-morning-1202461274/)
Moonves could still be paid $120 million in severance of he's cleared by an internal probe (https://nypost.com/2018/09/10/the-one-scenario-that-lets-les-moonves-pocket-120-million/)
CBS must do more post-Moonves to address the overall culture of complicity and complacency at the network (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/09/les-moonves-leaves-cbs/569722/)
CBS stock falls after Moonves' exit (https://www.thewrap.com/cbs-stock-drops-les-moonves-exit/)
Kathy Griffin slams Moonves and Julie Chen in Twitter rant (https://www.thewrap.com/kathy-griffin-rips-julie-chen-les-moonves-late-late-show/)

Les Moonves' ouster from CBS took many by surprise because he seemed "too big to jail" (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/les-moonves-resignation-sexual-misconduct-allegations.html)

"The simple fact is that it is deeply ingrained in us to think some men get to mistreat women. Some men are too big to jail," says Lili Loofbourow, pointing out that Moonves didn't get the boot until after another set of accusers came forward Sunday with even more disturbing stories. "We should accept no calculus that says six accusations aren’t enough but 12 are," she says. "The pragmatic politics here are as straightforward as they are irrational and nasty: The P.R. mills that grind people into capital determined that Moonves could weather one scandal enough to eat dinner in public and fight for his standing, but not two." Loofbourow adds: "Men like Moonves do all they can to encourage this assessment of their value, of course. They present themselves as essential to the success of the enterprise, knit their fate to the company’s. Moonves is more than diplomatic in interviews, but he makes clear that Warner Bros. was No. 1 when he left it, that CBS is now the No. 1 network under him, and that his biggest question when he arrived at CBS was whether he would be able to fix its problems: 'Am I ever going to get this right? How am I going to be able to figure out how to rebuild this place?' Men like this characterize accusations as conspiracies to bring them down because of their prominence ...The boards they install and executives they hire only serve to bolster the illusion that without these big men, the system will not hold. Those in more junior ranks who know of or encounter allegations are faced with the entire scaffolding of the institution arrayed against them. (Here’s what’s weird, though: This particular strain of corporate self-centering actually reveals the men in question to be abysmal stewards of their companies. Anyone whose organization is solely reliant on him has failed; the very claim that they’re irreplaceable speaks to fragility, not robustness.)"

ALSO:

CBS does have the right to reveal findings of its Les Moonves investigation, despite a "Confidentiality" section in his exit agreement (https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/cbs-leslie-moonves-investigation-disclose-1202937431/)
The Talk co-hosts support Gayle King's call for transparency in Moonves investigation (https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/the-talk-leslie-moonves-transparency-investigation-1202936972/)
Time's Up calls on CBS to donate $120 million from Moonves' severance (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/times-up-calls-on-cbs-to-donate-120-million-from-moonves-severance-to-sex-harassment-groups/)
CBS interim CEO Joe Ianniello was Moonves' right-hand man for a decade, which means he's unlikely to keep the job permanently (https://www.thewrap.com/wall-street-likes-interim-cbs-boss-joe-ianniello-but-moonves-cloud-threatens-his-future/)
60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager is still in his job as an investigation probes the culture of CBS News (https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/jeff-fager-60-minutes-leslie-moonves-harassment-probe-1202937278/)
Howard Stern unveils a "Les Moonves puppet" to mock his former foe (https://twitter.com/sternshow/status/1039614341404917761)

Gayle King calls for CBS to release the results of its Les Moonves investigation (https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/gayle-king-leslie-moonves-cbs-investigation-1202936424/)

Speaking on CBS This Morning, King echoed women's rights advocates who were stunned by reports that CBS might keep details of its probe of the former CBS CEO confidential. “I’m sick and sick of the story and sickened the by everything that we keep hearing,” King said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jd-bNUx-3k). Regarding the plan to keep the report private (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-may-not-release-findings-of-internal-investigation-into-les-moonves/), she said: “How can we have this investigation and not know how it comes out? Les Moonves has been on the record, he says, listen, he didn’t do these things, that it was consensual, that he hasn’t hurt anybody’s career. I would think it would be in his best interests for us to hear what the report finds out.”

ALSO:

How infighting hampered CBS from taking the allegations against Moonves seriously (https://www.wsj.com/articles/cbss-handling-of-les-moonves-accusations-hampered-by-battle-for-control-1536624692)
Moonves to remain as an unpaid advisor to CBS (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/les-moonves-remain-cbs-advisor-120-million-payout-pending-investigation-n908166)

Stephen Colbert addresses Les Moonves' ouster, jokes about a Louis CK-style comeback (https://ew.com/tv/2018/09/11/stephen-colbert-leslie-moonves-attempting-louis-c-k)

“Les Moonves is gone,” Colbert joked, “for at least nine months, until he does a set at the Comedy Cellar.” Colbert also said on The Late Show that he found Ronan Farrow's new New Yorker bombshell article on Moonves' alleged sexual misconduct "extremely disturbing." After Colbert's show, fellow CBS late-night host James Corden addressed Moonves' departure (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/stephen-colbert-not-surprised-by-leslie-moonves-ouster-1141863), saying: "A late-night host’s job is to come out and make jokes about the news, but sometimes that news isn’t very funny. It’s been a very difficult day here at CBS, but that pales in comparison to how difficult it must be for the many women who are coming forward."

I always wonder what the wife this of all this. A man you love and rumors in hanky panky with someone else. Being both in the limelight it must be awful.

I always wonder what the wife this of all this. A man you love and rumors in hanky panky with someone else. Being both in the limelight it must be awful.


He's too rich to divorce unless she didn't sign a prenup.

Didn't Les Moonves back in the '90s say to TV Guide in regards to CBS' new fall schedule "Last year, we had shows with Nancy McKeon and Elizabeth McGovern, but this season, we have shows with Bill Cosby and Ted Danson!" So, Nancy and Elizabeth were in series that didn't work, why single out and trash the actresses?

150. VANITY FAIR ("Designing Women" Creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason/Les Moonves) BLIND ITEM 09/12 (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/les-moonves-allegations-linda-bloodworth-thomason-essay)
(full article (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/les-moonves-allegations-linda-bloodworth-thomason-essay))
On top of her own allegations, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason also said that an unnamed famous actress, whose iconic detective show had recently been canceled, told her once that Moonves had forcibly kissed her. According to the actress, said Bloodworth-Thomason, she’d pitched Moonves a new show over lunch. He told her she was too old to star on his network, and when the actress began to cry, Moonves said, "I can’t let you leave like this"—before forcibly kissing her.

CBS board turned against Les Moonves after learning he was trying to silence an accuser with a CBS job offer (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/business/cbs-les-moonves-board.html)
The New York Times reports the former CBS CEO's support ran deep on the CBS board of directors, with one director, Arnold Kopelson, reportedly saying: “I don’t care if 30 more women come forward and allege this kind of stuff. Les is our leader and it wouldn’t change my opinion of him.” The Times' James B. Stewart reports that board members ultimately changed their minds upon learning that Moonves had misled them. "What these directors didn’t learn until nearly two weeks later, according to a CBS director and people close to the board, is that one of Mr. Moonves’s accusers was threatening to go public with her claims," reports Stewart. "Instead of reporting the situation, Mr. Moonves was in the process of trying to find the woman a job at CBS in order to gain her continued silence. When the board learned about this, even Mr. Moonves’s staunchest backers were stunned. Their belief in his credibility was shattered given his previous denials of anything untoward, these people said. In the end, it was the evidence that Mr. Moonves had misled his board — even more than the allegations of abuse from multiple women — that doomed him." The board decided it could terminate Moonves for cause, but opted to delay its firing until after its investigation was complete. "Some CBS directors had hoped to announce Mr. Moonves’s departure before the latest New Yorker article appeared, but the board missed that opportunity," says Stewart, adding: "Hours after the story appeared Sunday, the company said it would pay $20 million of anything: "Whatever the outcome of CBS’s continuing investigations, board members said that it’s all but certain that the company will pay Mr. Moonves nothing."

ALSO:

Variety describes "heartbroken" meetings at CBS following Moonves' ouster (https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/inside-cbs-after-leslie-moonves-exit-exclusive-1202938493/): "The attitude of senior level executives in these meetings was described by one attendee as 'heartbroken.' At none of the meetings did a female executive speak, and no one from human resources attended the meeting with network staff. Neither has there been any discussion at staff meetings of any policy changes regarding workplace harassment, nor communication about how to contact human resources."
Moonves' resignation is the most significant #MeToo moment yet (https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/9/12/17846452/les-moonves-metoo-cbs-resignation-leaving)
Why Moonves' CBS programming legacy will be hard to top (https://www.thewrap.com/why-les-moonves-legacy-with-cbs-tv-ratings-will-be-so-hard-to-top/)

I just wonder what it's going to do to Julie Chen's career (and personal life). I absolutely hate The Talk, but I do feel kind of sorry for her.

Ed.

Tirades, threats and "scary screaming": The dark side of working for Leslie Moonves https://bit.ly/2p5YVcQ

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DnBX9zLV4AIOFyF.jpg

Many former CBS staffers who worked closely with Moonves were surprised by the sexual assault allegations in Ronan Farrow's New Yorker stories, according to Variety's Cynthia Littleton. Yet they recalled an atmosphere of fear that Moonves created. "Moonves’ core team collaborated in the formidable job of running the network, and also on the best ways to handle a temperamental boss," reports Littleton. "The higher up executives climbed and the longer they worked with him, the more staffers were exposed to the darker side of his forceful personality. His eruptions sometimes got so loud and intense as to frighten the recipient, multiple sources said. 'Scary screaming,' one described. His mood swings made the already high-stakes atmosphere of running a television network even more fraught. 'You would just be fearful of what kind of Les you would get,' said another CBS veteran."

Les Moonves, Jeff Fager and Charlie Rose helped shape how our society sees women (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/abusive-media-moguls-harmed-more-than-just-individual-women-they-shaped-a-misogynistic-culture/2018/09/13/a3712638-b74a-11e8-a2c5-3187f427e253_story.html)
"It’s impossible to know how different America would be if power-happy and misogynistic men hadn’t been running the show in so many influential media organizations — certainly not just CBS," says Margaret Sullivan of three high-profile CBS departures. Sullivan points out that powerful men like Moonves, Fager and Rose didn't have to sexually harass women to exert their power, as shown in two instances on Tuesday. CBS News reporter Jericka Duncan, who received a threatening text from then-60 Minutes executive producer Fager, wasn't a victim of sexual harassment. Neither was Designing Women creator Linda Bloodworth Thomason, who penned a Hollywood Reporter guest column (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/designing-women-creator-les-moonves-not-all-harassment-is-sexual-1142448) Tuesday describing how CBS boss Moonves sidelined her career. "Neither Duncan nor Bloodworth-Thomason have said they were victims of sexual harassment at CBS. But they certainly were mistreated," says Sullivan. "And these two moments offer a hint of how widespread the damage of a misogynistic culture can be — with the harm extending well beyond the primary victims whose careers, in some cases, were irrevocably derailed." ALSO: CBS News is looking as sexist, sick and predatory as Fox News (http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bs-fe-zontv-cbs-fager-metoo-20180912-story.html).

I just wonder what it's going to do to Julie Chen's career (and personal life). I absolutely hate The Talk, but I do feel kind of sorry for her.

Ed.

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/i-m-julie-chen-moonves-big-brother-host-says-upon-n909601

Clearly, she's standing behind her husband. I don't feel sorry for her.

I just wonder what it's going to do to Julie Chen's career (and personal life). I absolutely hate The Talk, but I do feel kind of sorry for her.

Ed.

Allegedly, Julie fought it out with another woman who was also having an affair with Moonves while he was still married to his first wife. That’s how nasty this is. She became the main mistress and moved in with him, YES, while he was still a married man with 3 children.

Illeana Douglas recounts Les Moonves' alleged sexual harassment, calls Ronan Farrow "the patron saint of actresses" (https://deadline.com/2018/09/ileana-douglas-les-moonves-cbs-man-i-admired-on-top-of-me-1202465105/)
Douglas spoke to New Yorker editor David Remnick on The New Yorker Radio Hour about Moonves alleged sexual misconduct, the drinking of the CBS "Kool-Aid" and the "terror" she felt. “There is a deep seated history of misogyny at CBS,” Douglas said. “In my opinion, what would be really impressive is that the new head of CBS says, ‘I’m going to turn the page on this and I am not going to let an environment happen where women go to work and don’t feel safe.’ … An executive who has the courage to say, ‘I am going to make a stand and I am not going to tolerate this kind of behavior.'”

Judd Apatow: Julie Chen's "Julie Chen Moonves" Big Brother sign-off was "cruel" to Les Moonves' many victims (https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/julie-chens-defiant-support-les-moonves-big-brother-doesnt-sit-well-twitter-just-disrespected-women-husband-abused-211232329.html)
Apatow joined other celebrities in denouncing Chen's support of her husband on Big Brother. "Her husband threatened people and ruined careers," tweeted Apatow. "He sexually assaulted and harassed people. To stand by him at this moment is cruel to the many victims. Maybe the shock and fear of her husband has damaged her and she isn’t seeing clearly— yet."

Why CBS might still end up paying Les Moonves $120 million in severance (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/business/moonves-cbs-severance.html)
"Whether he collects the $120 million severance payment will come down to a seemingly simple question: Was he fired for 'cause'?" explains James B. Stewart. "For most people, the allegations against Mr. Moonves would be more than enough cause. But in the strange world of chief executive contracts, they may not be. Mr. Moonves’s most recent contract, which he signed last year, stipulates that cause for being fired includes a felony conviction, fraud, failing to cooperate fully in a company investigation and violation of any company policies, including those concerning sexual harassment. Mere allegations of sexual misconduct, which now have been made publicly against Mr. Moonves by 12 women, do not constitute cause. Nor is it likely that behavior that occurred before he joined CBS could be considered a violation of any company policy."

Actress alleges Les Moonves sexually assaulted her and offered her a $1,500 acting gig to keep quiet (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/business/les-moonves-bobbie-phillips-marv-dauer-cbs-severance.html)

Bolstered by hundreds of text messages, The New York Times reports on a new allegation that could sink Moonves' $120 million CBS exit package (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/new-leslie-moonves-expos-could-cost-mogul-120-million-1164580). Actress Bobbie Phillips (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004095/) alleges that in 1995, when Moonves was president of Warner Bros. Television, he sexually assaulted her. According to The Times, Moonves "allegedly grabbed her by the neck, pushed her to her knees and forced his penis into her mouth" during a meeting in his office. Phillips told her agent, Marv Dauer, about the incident soon afterwards. In November 2017, amid the #MeToo movement, Dauer received a call from a Times reporter asking about Moonves and sexual misconduct. "He immediately thought of Bobbie Phillips," The Times reports. That led to Dauer connecting with Moonves. "Mr. Dauer and Mr. Moonves have given different accounts of the conversation, but they agree on one crucial point: They discussed the possibility of getting Ms. Phillips an acting gig to keep her happy," reports The Times. Dauer recalls Moonves saying in a sworn statement that "if Bobbie talks, I’m done.” The Times also reports that there was a "monthslong cascade of hundreds of text messages" about giving Phillips and Dauer's other clients jobs. One role, which Phillips turned down was for a guest spot on Blood and Treasure (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_%26_Treasure) that paid $1,500 for a day's shooting (https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/les-moonves-tried-to-silence-accuser-with-usd1-500-acting-gig.html). The Times reports that "upon learning that Mr. Moonves had tried to find a job for an accuser, the CBS board held an emergency meeting with their lawyers. The focus was on Mr. Moonves’s relationship with Mr. Dauer. Until that point, the lawyers had recommended keeping Mr. Moonves as C.E.O. Now their view was shifting." Weeks later, upon further investigation, Moonves was ousted from CBS.

How can people do such creepy horrible things and feel comfortable. My skin crawls. If I was his wife I'd be divorced in a heartbeat. He should lose his money. Let him live with shame.

Can CBS really escape Les Moonves' shadow when it was made in its own image? (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/12/cbs-les-moonves-problem-isnt-solved/577435/)

New details (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/business/media/les-moonves-cbs-report.html) from a 59-page draft report on the former CBS chief's alleged sexual misconduct are damning, says Megan Garber. "Les Moonves will, as one result of the CBS investigation and its findings, very likely leave the network with no severance," she says. "His reputation will very likely never recover. CBS, which was initially so slow to act on the allegations against its leader and against its own culture, will very likely present this outcome as a victory: for #MeToo, for justice, for morality itself. The bad apple removed. The problem solved. But cultures are not easily changed. Broken systems do not simply un-break themselves. Moonves made CBS in his own image; that means a true reckoning with his behavior—and with that of the network that empowered him—will require much more than a firing enacted and a severance withheld. Bad apples, after all, have their own kind of seeds."