Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Les Moonves Loses $120M Severance After CBS Finds Sexual Misconduct, Coverup

It’s a strange day when feminists, muckrakers, and a gigantic corporation can all rejoice at once, but today is such a day.

CBS announced that an investigation into sexual assault allegations against Les Moonves found that the ex-CEO committed widespread sexual misconduct and misled investigators. As a result, he will be fired as well as denied the $120 million payout he otherwise would have received for being ousted from the company, the New York Times reports.

Moonves, the TV titan who oversaw two decades worth of hits like “Survivor” and “The Big Bang Theory,” was found by independent investigators hired by CBS to have “engaged in multiple acts of serious nonconsensual sexual misconduct in and outside of the workplace, both before and after he came to CBS,” the New York Times reported in December.

Moonves’ exit from the company was all but a foregone conclusion, but the announcement today that he will not receive $120 million in severance is significant. In a statement, the CBS board wrote, “We have determined that there are grounds to terminate for cause, including his willful and material misfeasance, violation of company policies and breach of his employment contract, as well as his willful failure to cooperate fully with the company’s investigation.”

The investigation from CBS comes after six women told the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow that Moonves sexually harassed or assaulted them in July, joined by six more women in September, as well as dozens more who reported inappropriate behavior.

One of Moonves’ many gambits during the investigation included deleting texts in which he attempted to quiet an accuser, the Times found. In another audacious move, when investigators asked him to hand over his iPad, he gave them the iPad belonging to his son.

Prior to coming to CBS, Les Moonves produced shows like “Friends” and “Full House.” He is, of all things, the great-nephew by marriage of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.