‘CBS WAS LES MOONVES’
Successful network shaped by its CEO will be challenged without him
For the past two decades, CBS may just as well have been called the Moonves Broadcasting System. Now, it’s time to move on. Moonves, who was ousted last weekend as head of CBS Corp. amid a continuing investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, began working as the network’s entertainment division president in 1995 and built it into the corporation’s profitable crown jewel.
CBS is a throwback at a time of rapid changes in how people consume television. Moonves believed in broadcasting as the word was conceived, trying to reach the broadest possible audience with a formula that emphasized mystery procedurals and classic sitcoms. CBS has been the most-watched U.S. TV network for the past 10 seasons in a row, and 15 of the past 16, with Fox winning once at the height of American Idol mania. “That’s one of the reasons CBS has been so successful — a singular vision coming from one person,” said Garth Ancier, former chief programming executive at NBC, Fox and the WB network, who also worked with Moonves at the Warner Brothers studio. Now CBS is in a predicament similar to what Fox News Channel faced when Roger Ailes was forced out in 2016 following sexual misconduct charges, felled by #MeToo before it was a movement. In both cases, a creative enterprise thoroughly dominated by one person was suddenly left to fend for itself. CBS under Moonves has always been television comfort food rather than fine dining. He favoured good-guy, badguy dramas — often centred on grotesque crimes — where a story is wrapped up in an hour. If CSI: Crime Scene Investigation works, create a spinoff or two. Same with NCIS. If a proven idea from the past could come back with some updating, he’d try it — think Hawaii Five-0, Magnum PI and Elementary.
He went for big laughs in relatable, traditional comedies, like Everybody Loves Raymond, The Big Bang Theory and Mom. He trusted viewers would be curious to see well-known actors coming back for new roles, such as Kevin James, Robin Williams, Julia Louis-Dreyfus or Matt LeBlanc. A former actor who loves the world of show biz, Moonves gave the green light in decisions large and small. He’d often decide which actors would guest star in series, and what castaways would go on Survivor. Even after he became a corporate chieftain, he loved to keep his hands in the mix, and loved talking about it. The decision to replace David Letterman with Stephen Colbert looked like a failure after one year. But Moonves sensed he needed help, and brought an executive from CBS News, Chris Licht, to run the show backstage and free Colbert to do what he did best. It was an offbeat choice that paid off: Colbert is now reigning ratings king of late-night TV. Similarly, he saw James Corden in a Broadway show and selected him to follow Colbert on the schedule. Such absolute power brings with it the possibility of abuse, however. Moonves’ second wife, Julie Chen, faced nepotism whispers as host of CBS’s Big Brother reality show and co-host on daytime TV’s The Talk. On Wednesday, Designing Women creator Linda Bloodworth Thomason wrote a scathing column in The Hollywood Reporter saying Moonves disliked her and buried her network career. “Not all harassment is sexual,” she wrote. There are uglier stories. Several women told The New Yorker magazine, which uncovered the misconduct charges against Moonves, he had essentially ruined or derailed their show business careers. Moonves denies this. Chen supported Moonves after a first round of accusations last month, saying he was a “decent and moral human being.” Now she appears to be standing by him still. Although Chen is taking a break from her chair on The Talk, she has returned as Big Brother host. Chen, 48, ended Thursday’s broadcast by saying, “From outside the Big Brother house, I’m Julie Chen Moonves. Good night.” Usually, she just says “Julie Chen.” She did not address her husband’s resignation. With Moonves out of power and no longer a threat, the chance of more stories coming out increases exponentially. What remains unclear is whether others at CBS will be tainted by their own misbehaviour, either enabling Moonves or being protected because the boss liked them. Moonves has had loyal lieutenants, like current entertainment president Kelly Kahl, who has worked with him since they were at the Warner Bros. studio in the early 1990s. But “he has never really put anyone in a succession position,” said Bill Carter, CNN analyst and author of The Late Shift on latenight television. “He never liked the idea.”
Whoever eventually takes charge at CBS may not necessarily be interested in people with close ties to Moonves. Who knows how many people that The Talk co-host Sharon Osbourne was speaking for on Monday when she said on the air that “everyone here at CBS is nervous about their jobs.”
But it would be risky for someone to come in and dramatically change what CBS is doing, Ancier said. While people close to Fox News see changes there since Ailes left, the network hasn’t changed its basic direction and remains successful.
CBS faces the same test. “Basically, CBS was Les Moonves,” Carter said. Not anymore.