Bowing to pressure brought on by a sexual harassment scandal, CBS Corp. Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves was expected to resign late Sunday or early Monday, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment publicly.
Negotiations over the terms of his departure accelerated after a new report Sunday in the New Yorker magazine, which detailed six women's allegations of sexual misconduct involving Moonves in the 1980s and 1990s.
Moonves' departure was not unexpected. Moonves, 68, has been negotiating a settlement with independent CBS board members in recent weeks. But talks heated up after the latest allegations contained 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 at CBS.
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 was angry over a work matter and 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.
CBS board member Bruce Gordon has been leading the efforts to settle with Moonves and end a lawsuit with National Amusements Inc., the Redstone family investment vehicle that owns the controlling shares of CBS.
Joseph Ianniello, CBS' chief operating officer, is expected to be elevated to interim CEO. Ianniello has been with CBS, and its corporate predecessor Viacom Inc., for 18 years. He is deeply familiar with the company's finances _ and has helped to plot the company's business strategy _ but he lacks relationships in Hollywood, where Moonves had a strong reputation for being one of the industry's best programmers.
CBS has been considering bringing in a high-level entertainment executive from outside CBS to oversee programming executives in Los Angeles, according to two other people familiar with the matter.
Moonves will become the highest-profile media figure to step down in the #MeToo era. Twelve women have separately accused him of sexual conduct in the two articles by investigative reporter Ronan Farrow. 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 article were consensual. A spokesperson for Moonves was not available to comment.
The allegations came at an inopportune time for Moonves by diminishing his clout as well as the leverage of CBS' independent board members who had taken the extraordinary step of suing the company's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone. Redstone, the daughter of patriarch Sumner Redstone, has been agitating for changes atop CBS for much of this year.
Moonves and other independent board members were attempting to strip the Redstone family of its voting control, but now the independent board members are ready to settle that case, too.
That lawsuit was headed for an October trial, which gave urgency to the settlement talks. The deal under discussion is expected to lead to significant changes in the CBS board by installing new board members who are expected align with Redstone.
The Redstone family, through National Amusements, controls nearly 80 percent of the voting stock of both CBS and Viacom.
Moonves has been the face of CBS since 1995. He took over a floundering television network and steadily built it into a juggernaut that attracts more viewers than any other U.S. TV network. Since 2006, Moonves has been CEO of CBS Corp., which in addition to the broadcast network, owns a string of television stations, a television production studio, the Showtime premium channel, publisher Simon & Schuster and a 50 percent stake in the CW network.
When Moonves took over CBS in 1995, the network was on the ropes in the ratings. Moonves steadily rebuilt CBS with a string of hits, including "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Survivor," "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "NCIS," "Two and a Half Men," "The Amazing Race" and "The Big Bang Theory."
He was elevated to CBS Corp. CEO in 2006 when the controlling shareholder, Sumner Redstone, divided his empire into two publicly traded companies, CBS and Viacom Inc. Moonves, in the last decade, reshaped the company by launching streaming services, building a CBS digital product, and shedding old businesses such as the billboard division and radio stations.
Moonves also maintained the distinction of being one of America's highest paid CEOs. Last year, he received compensation worth $69.3 million.
He acknowledged mistakes after the first New Yorker article, saying he recognized "there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances." But he denied harassing anyone and also pointed to his record of promoting women to high-profile roles.
Several prominent female executives _ film executive Terry Press, advertising sales chief Jo Ann Ross, with Moonves' wife and CBS talk show host, Julie Chen _ rallied around Moonves in a show of support after the initial article. Some of his supporters called for a more tempered response, noting the incidents that allegedly occurred were several decades ago when cultural mores was more tolerant of boorish behavior.
But the damage was done. Three days after the article was published one of the network's biggest stars _ Stephen Colbert _ said "accountability is meaningless unless it's for everybody, whether it's the leader of a network or the leader of the free world."
CBS' board of directors last month hired two high-profile female attorneys from powerhouse New York law firms to investigate the allegations of sexual harassment and examine the company's workplace culture, including in the CBS News division. Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White from the Debevoise & Plimpton law firm was brought in, along with Nancy Kestenbaum of Covington & Burling.
The lawyers have interviewed dozens of people who work at CBS and former executives and assistants who left long ago, according to several knowledgeable people.
Hollywood and other industries have been forced to account for years of turning a blind eye to sexual harassment and discrimination after allegations that movie producer Harvey Weinstein had sexually abused dozens of women. In the case of Moonves, there were fewer allegations of misconduct but stakes were higher because he managed a publicly traded company, which must protect the interests of shareholders.
CBS' stock is down 10 percent this year and board members had important business interests to consider, such as maintaining its relationships with the advertisers that provide a much of CBS' annual revenue.
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(Richard Winton contributed to this report.)
