Leslie Roy Moonves (/ˈmuːnvɛz/; born October 6, 1949)[1] is an American media executive who was the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation[2][3] from 2003 until his resignation in September 2018 following numerous allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault and abuse.[4] He has been married to TV personality Julie Chen since 2004.
He held a series of executive positions at CBS from July 1995 to September 2018.[2] He was also on the board of directors at ZeniMax Media from 1999 until 2021.[2][5] Later, he was co-president and co-chief operating officer (COO) of the original Viacom, the legal predecessor to CBS Corporation, from 2004 until the company split in December 2005. He became chairman of CBS in February 2016.[6][7][8] In September 2018, Moonves stepped down as chairman of CBS after multiple women brought forth sexual assault allegations against him. Moonves allegedly destroyed evidence of his sexual misconduct.[9]
According to various media reports, Moonves has amassed a net worth of over US$800 million through compensation from CBS. Moonves earned $68.4 million in 2017, combined with stock options of the media company, worth over $100 million.
Early life
Leslie Roy Moonves[10] was born in Brooklyn, New York City[1] to a Jewish family,[11][12] the son of Josephine (Schleifer) and Herman Moonves,[13][14] and grew up in Valley Stream, New York. His mother was a nurse.[15] He has one sister, Melissa Moonves Colon, and two brothers, including entertainment attorney Jonathan Moonves.[15] He attended Valley Stream Central High School and went to Bucknell University, graduating in 1971.[16] In his sophomore year, he decided that his science courses were unfulfilling and switched his major from pre-medical to the Spanish language (a subject he found vastly more enjoyable) and acted in a few plays; following graduation in 1971 he moved to Manhattan to pursue an acting career where he eventually graduated from the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He landed a few parts, playing tough guys on Cannon and The Six Million Dollar Man,[17][unreliable source?] which he described as "forgettable" TV roles before deciding on the career change.[18] He also worked as one of casting directorCaro Jones' first office assistants early in her career.[19]
Business career
Moonves was in charge of first-run syndication and pay/cable programming at 20th Century Fox Television. Also at 20th Century Fox Television, he was vice president of movies and mini-series. Other positions included vice president of development at Saul Ilson Productions (in association with Columbia Pictures Television) and development executive for Catalina Productions.[20]
Lorimar Television and Warner Bros. Television (1985–1995)
Moonves joined Lorimar Television in 1985 as executive in charge of its movies and mini-series, and in 1988, became head of creative affairs. From 1990 to 1993, he was president at Lorimar.[21] In July 1993, he became president/CEO of Warner Bros. Television, when Warner Bros. and Lorimar Television combined operations. In this phase of his career, he green-lighted the shows Friends and ER, among many others.[18]
CBS (1995–2018)
He joined CBS in July 1995 as President of CBS Entertainment.[22] From April 1998 until 2003, he was president and chief executive officer at CBS, then was promoted to chairman and CEO of CBS in 2003. CBS had six of the ten most-watched primetime shows in the final quarter of 2005: CSI, Without a Trace, CSI: Miami, Survivor: Guatemala, NCIS, and Cold Case.[18]
Moonves was the second most highly-paid executive for 2012 and 2013: he received $58.8 million[24] and $65.4 million.[25] He is considered the second-highest paid CEO, having been paid $68.4 million in 2017.[26]
Of the tone of the 2016 Republican presidential campaign, and the advertising dollars it delivered, Moonves said, "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS ... Man, who would have expected the ride we're all having right now? ... The money's rolling in and this is fun ... I've never seen anything like this, and this [is] going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going."[28] He added, "Donald's place in this election is a good thing."[29]
Moonves was also open to acquiring smaller film production companies to expand the company's CBS Films division.[30] At the end of July 2017, Moonves was a part of a first-look television production deal between CBS and Imagine Entertainment, a feature film, television programming and documentary production company run by filmmaker Ron Howard and film producer Brian Grazer.[31]
In September 2018, following allegations of sexual assault, it was reported that CBS was negotiating a $100 million exit package for Moonves and that CBS Chief Operating Officer Joe Ianniello would be his interim replacement.[32] On September 9, 2018, CBS Corporation announced he had resigned and Joe Iannello would become interim CEO.[33] Moonves and CBS will donate $20 million to the #MeToo movement, money that will be deducted from any severance benefits Moonves may be owed, the company said. The donation to charities promoting women's equality in the workplace would come upon the conclusion of an independent investigation into the allegations, according to the statement.[34] In May 2021, Moonves dropped his claim for $120 million in severance pay, which reverted to ViacomCBS (the result of the 2019 merger of CBS Corporation and the second Viacom, later Paramount Global in 2022), and law firm Covington & Burling paid an undisclosed settlement fee to Moonves.[35]
Janet Jackson
Following his firing from CBS due to sexual harassment, Moonves was revealed to have been obsessed with ruining R&B singer-songwriter Janet Jackson's career. His actions had followed the February 1, 2004, Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, also known as Nipplegate. Jackson's right breast, adorned with a pierced nipple shield (with a silver sun), had been exposed by ex-NSYNC member, vocalist Justin Timberlake, for 9/16ths of a second.[36]
The brief exposure became, what was at the time, the most rewatched moment in the history of TiVo.[37]
According to the documentary Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson, Moonves wanted an apology from both Jackson and Timberlake. Moonves deemed Jackson's apology as "insufficient" and implemented a blacklist of her music and music videos on MTV, VH1 and Infinity Broadcasting radio stations, all of which were owned by the original incarnation of Viacom at the time. MTV also had produced the halftime show, and it was permanently disallowed from producing future halftime shows as a consequence.[38] Jackson had been scheduled to attend the 46th Annual Grammy Awards where she was to perform a tribute to Luther Vandross, after collaborating with him on the #1 single "The Best Things in Life Are Free", which was created for the soundtrack to the 1992 film Mo' Money. She, along with Timberlake, however, were disinvited from attending[39] unless they released on-air apologies for the "Nipplegate" incident.[40] Only Timberlake went to the ceremony after having approached Moonves in person at CBS' Los Angeles offices,[41] where he tearfully apologized to him.[42] The Vandross tribute was instead performed by Celine Dion, Alicia Keys and Richard Marx.[43] CBS was fined $27,500 for the incident.[44] In June 2006, that amount later was later increased to $325,000 by the Federal Communications Commission.[45]) Moonves allegedly asked fellow CBS executives if the corporation could compel Jackson to pay the FCC fines following the investigation of the halftime show incident by Congress.[38]
Moonves' anger at Jackson over the occurrence continued well into 2011, when Jackson signed a book deal with publisher Simon & Schuster, owned by CBS Corporation, for the self-help book True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself. "How the f*** did she slip through?," he reportedly inquired. Moonves also said, according to one source, that "...heads were going to roll," as a result of the settlement to which Jackson had agreed.[36]
Howard Stern litigation
In February 2006, Moonves led CBS to file a $500 million lawsuit against Howard Stern for allegedly breaching his contract by failing to disclose the details of his deal with Sirius Satellite Radio while still employed by Infinity Broadcasting. Stern vowed to fight the suit, and said on his radio program that Moonves and CBS were trying to "bully" him and his agent, Don Buchwald. Stern later appeared on CBS' own Late Show with David Letterman, wearing a shirt mocking Moonves and his wife. In June 2006, Stern announced that the lawsuit had been settled. As part of the settlement, Sirius acquired the exclusive rights to all of the WXRK tapes (over two decades' worth of shows) for $2 million.[46]
Moonves voiced support for the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment in the workplace,[50][51] even describing it as a "watershed moment" during a November 2017 press conference,[52] and was a founding member of the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace, formed in late 2017 to "tackle the broad culture of abuse and power disparity".[53][54] In January 2018, CBS Cares released public service announcements concerning how to combat sexual harassment.[55][56][57]
In July 2018, The New Yorker published an article by Ronan Farrow saying that six women accused Moonves of harassment and intimidation, and dozens have described abuse at CBS.[58] Moonves was subsequently placed under investigation by the CBS board.[59] In August 2018, Bucknell University removed references to Moonves on its website, and University of Southern California suspended Moonves' name from its Media Center.[60] In September 2018, The New Yorker reported that six more women (in addition to the six original women reported in July) had raised accusations against Moonves, going back to the 1980s.[61] Shortly after resigning as CEO of CBS that month, Moonves released a statement denying all of the sexual misconduct allegations.[62]
In November 2018, The New York Times published an article in which actress Bobbie Phillips alleges that Moonves sexually assaulted her during the mid-1990s, and was attempting to bury the allegations.[63] The next month, it was revealed Moonves had been involved in paying a $9.5 million settlement to actress Eliza Dushku, who claimed she was written out of her starring role on CBS drama Bull as retaliation for reporting sexual harassment by co-star Michael Weatherly; actress Cybill Shepherd alleged in a radio interview that Moonves cancelled her sitcom, Cybill, after she rejected his advances.[64][65]
On December 18, 2018, CBS announced that the board would deny Moonves his $120 million severance pay, as their investigation had found Moonves violated his contract. According to investigators, claims made by the women were credible and led to more claims that were found to be credible during the course of the investigation. In addition, it was claimed that Moonves attempted to interfere with the investigation. Allegations of examples include Moonves refusing to cooperate with investigators, acting "evasive and untruthful" towards investigators, deleting hundreds of messages, and passing off his son's iPad as his own to investigators.[64][66][67][68][69]
On June 21, 2019, advice columnist E. Jean Carroll wrote in a first-person essay in New York that Moonves sexually assaulted her in an elevator in the mid-1990s after she interviewed him for a story. Moonves denied the allegation.[70]
On May 14, 2021, CBS and Moonves agreed to settle their disputes over the latter's $120 million severance. A joint statement from Moonves and CBS explained that the $120 million would "revert" to CBS, that the cost of the settlement would be borne by CBS' law firm, and that Moonves would contribute the settlement money to various charities.[71]
Moon Rise Unlimited
On February 8, 2019, The New York Times reported that Moonves had founded his own company in West Hollywood, California named Moon Rise Unlimited after being fired from CBS.[72]
Public appearances
On April 7, 2003, Moonves portrayed himself in an episode of The Practice. From early 2004 until its end in May 2015, Moonves made regular appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman. One of these came when Letterman declared outrage that CBS featured his late-night competitor Jay Leno in an ad for CBS's telecast of the People's Choice Awards. Letterman jokingly warned the "CBS stooge in the control room" to call his buddies "before things turn ugly"; Moonves obliged. Later appearances took the same format, with Letterman discussing current events and the CBS network with the company's CEO.
In 1978, Moonves married Nancy Wiesenfeld, with whom he has three children[76][77] including W magazine editor in chief Sara Moonves.[78] In April 2003, Nancy Moonves filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. Nancy and Les Moonves were already living apart.[79]
While still married to Nancy, Moonves began dating Julie Chen, CBS' The Early Show reporter and host of the reality series Big Brother and The Talk.[80] On December 10, 2004, Moonves got a court to grant an early divorce,[81] on a motion citing a "desire to return to the status of being single". Thirteen days later in Mexico, he married Chen.[80] In 2009, Chen gave birth to a son.[82]
Moonves practices Transcendental Meditation, and has said, "It puts me in a calm state, which I'm not always in."[85]
Philanthropy
In 2015, Moonves and Chen made a major donation to University of Southern California, resulting in a media center being named the Julie Chen/Leslie Moonves and CBS Media Center. Moonves was already a USC School of Cinematic Arts' board of councilors member.[86] Previously Moonves was a University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism board member.[87]
In August 2018, Moonves was "suspended" from the USC School of Cinematic Arts' board of councilors in the wake of sex abuse allegations.[88]
In September 2018, at the same time Moonves resigned, CBS announced that Moonves and the network would be donating $20 million to #MeToo-related organizations.[89][90]
^Carter, Bill (August 18, 1998). "CBS Fills President's Post At Entertainment Division". The New York Times. Retrieved August 22, 2012. CBS named Nancy Tellem president of the network's entertainment division yesterday, the position vacated in April by her longtime associate, Leslie Moonves, who is now the chief executive of CBS Television.
^"CBS investigating sexual misconduct claims against CEO Les Moonves". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The Associated Press. July 27, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2018. Moonves was the No. 2 highest paid CEO of a major public company in 2017, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm. He made $68.4 million US last year
^Farrow, Ronan. "As Leslie Moonves Negotiates His Exit from CBS, Women Raise New Assault and Harassment Claims". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 9, 2018. Six additional women are now accusing Moonves of sexual harassment or assault in incidents that took place between the nineteen-eighties and the early aughts. They include claims that Moonves forced them to perform oral sex on him, that he exposed himself to them without their consent, and that he used physical violence and intimidation against them. A number of the women also said that Moonves retaliated after they rebuffed him, damaging their careers.
^ abZinski, Dan (December 18, 2018). "CBS CEO Les Moonves Fired 'For Cause', Won't Get $120 Million Severance". Screen Rant. Valnet, Inc. Retrieved December 27, 2018. Later, it was revealed that Moonves was also involved in paying a settlement to actress Eliza Dushku after she made accusations of sexual misconduct while working on the CBS series Bull.
^Battaglio, Stephen (February 24, 2016). "How Leslie Moonves continues to guide CBS to the top of the TV industry". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 17, 2016. Moonves cools down by practicing Transcendental Meditation several times a week. ... 'I do it right before I go to sleep,' he said. 'It puts me in a calm state, which I'm not always in.'
^McCarthy, Tom (September 10, 2018). "Les Moonves resigns from CBS after six more women accuse him of sexual harassment". The Guardian. Retrieved September 10, 2018. Moonves and CBS will donate $20m to one or more organisations that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace. This donation will be deducted from any severance benefits that may be due Moonves following the investigation.
Further reading
Stewart, James B.; Rachel Abrams (2023). Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN9781984879424. OCLC1365390478.
