Longtime CBS Chief Les Moonves steps down

LOS ANGELES - Bowing to pressure brought on by a sexual harassment scandal, CBS Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves resigned late Sunday, marking a stunning fall from grace for one of Hollywood’s most respected entertainment executives.

CBS said that it and Moonves will donate $20 million to organizations that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace. The donation, which will be made this week, has been deducted from any severance benefits that might have been due to Moonves.

Moonves’ most recent contract, which was due to expire in 2021, made him eligible to receive an exit deal valued at around $180 million - but that is now in doubt. The CBS board plans to wait to negotiate a financial settlement until the conclusion of an investigation by two prominent law firms into allegations of misconduct.

“Leslie Moonves will depart as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Chief Operating Officer Joseph Ianniello will serve as President and Acting CEO while the Board conducts a search for a permanent successor,” CBS said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

Negotiations over the terms of Moonves’ departure accelerated following a new report Sunday in the New Yorker magazine, which detailed six women’s allegations of sexual misconduct involving him in the 1980s and 1990s. Now at least 12 women have alleged that Moonves made inappropriate advances toward them.

In addition, CBS’ board will get a makeover. Independent board members struck a separate settlement with the company’s controlling shareholder family - the Redstones. That deal will dramatically overhaul CBS’ board by installing six new members, including several who are not aligned with the Redstone family.

The Redstone family, through its investment firm, National Amusements Inc., controls nearly 80 percent of the voting stock of both CBS and a second media company, Viacom Inc. As part of the truce, National Amusements will agree not to pursue a merger between CBS and Viacom for at least two years. The board at CBS also will be allowed to entertain offers from other prospective buyers - a condition that should immediately hang a for-sale sign on CBS.

Moonves’ departure was not unexpected. The 68-year-old executive has been negotiating a settlement with independent CBS board members in recent weeks. But talks heated up in the wake of the latest allegations in the New Yorker article, which included the account of a former Lorimar television executive, Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb. She described being attacked by Moonves in the mid-1980s when the two were colleagues.

Golden-Gottlieb filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department last year, and police found her allegations to be credible, according to law enforcement sources. She described two incidents, including one in which she said Moonves demanded that she perform oral sex on him. In the second incident, Moonves allegedly slammed her against a wall. But prosecutors declined to bring charges because the incidents were more than 30 years old and the statute of limitations had expired.

Moonves becomes the highest-profile media executive to see his career collapse from the weight of sexual harassment allegations that surfaced in the #MeToo era. Articles in the New Yorker, authored by investigative reporter Ronan Farrow, in the past six weeks contained devastating accusations. Farrow’s first report detailed claims of an actress, Illeana Douglas, who said Moonves tackled her at the end of a business meeting in his CBS office in 1997. Sunday’s article in the New Yorker detailed allegations that Moonves demanded massages from women or forcibly kissed them.

Moonves told the New Yorker that some of the encounters described in the Sunday article were consensual. A spokesperson for Moonves was not available for comment Sunday.

The allegations against Moonves came to light as CBS was struggling to mop up a separate scandal at its vaunted CBS News division. Longtime PBS personality and CBS morning news host Charlie Rose was ousted late last year following allegations by women that he acted inappropriately. In addition, “60 Minutes” executive producer Jeff Fager also has been accused of boorish behavior and tolerating inappropriate conduct. An outside law firm has been investigating the CBS News culture since March.