Les Moonves Wiki
Les Moonves (Leslie Moonves) is an American media executive who has served as the Chairman and Ceo of CBS corporation. for a period of 15 years before resignation(2003-2018). He has held many executive positions at CBS. He has been on Zenimax media as a board of directors.
Les Moonves Biography
Moonves has performed as the co-chief operating officer(COO) of the original Viacom, inc. which has been a predecessor to CBS. He has been the chairman of CBS until 2018 when he resigned due to diverse sexual abuse allegations filed against him. He joined Lorimar Television in 1985 as an executive in charge of its movies and mini-series, and in 1988, became head of creative affairs.
In July 1993, he became CEO of Warner Bros. Television, when Warner Bros. and Lorimar Television combined operations. In this facet of his career, he green-lighted the shows Friends and ER, among many others.
He has amassed a lot of cash from different compensation packages from CBS, combined with stock options of the media company. Moonves also earned a severance package from the same company but all this has been suspended pending the outcome of several sexual abuse allegations on him.
In his sophomore year, he decided to switch his major from pre-medical to Spanish and acted in a few plays.
he later moved to Manhattan to pursue an acting career in 1971 where he eventually graduated from the Neighborhood Playhouse.
He has played in movies such as tough guys on Cannon and The Six Million Dollar Man which he described as “forgettable” TV roles, before deciding on the career change.
Les Moonves CBS
Moonves, the ousted CEO of CBS for a period of 15 years has let it be known that he’s not going away quietly without his money. This occurs a month after CBS denied Les Moonves his US$120 million ramp package on the grounds that he did not fully cooperate with the investigation into his sexual misconduct allegations.
Moonves has demanded that he and the network take the matter to binding arbitration this was acknowledged by CBS in a Securities and Exchange Commission. CBS posted to its corporate website, that the company acknowledges that Moonves has that right under the separation agreement he signed in September, but it maintains that he was fired for cause and therefore is not entitled to any severance pay.
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 filed a lawsuit and said on his radio program that Moonves and CBS were trying to “bully” him. 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.
In February 2005, Moonves was identified as the executive directly responsible for ordering the cancellation of UPN’s Star Trek: Enterprise and the ending of the 18-year revival of the Star Trek television franchise. In January 2006, Moonves helped make the deal that brought together the CBS-owned United Paramount Network (UPN) with The WB Television Network to form The CW Television Network that fall.
Les Moonves Age
Les was born on October 6, 1949,
Les Moonves Family
He is a son of a Jewish family with the mother Josephine Schleifer who was a nurse and Herman Moonves. He has one sister, Melissa Moonves Colon, and two brothers, including entertainment attorney Jonathan Moonves.
Les Moonves Wife
Moonves married Nancy Wiesenfeld In 1978, with whom he had three children. She later filed for divorce in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences.
In 2004, he started dating Julie Chen,( CBS’ The Early Show reporter and host of the reality series Big Brother.) and married Chen in 2009, Chen gave birth to a son namely Charlie Moonves in 2009. They have dated for 14 years. The son is said to be trying to trace his roots just like his mother did before being of Asian origin.
Les Moonves Children
He has three children with Nancy Wiesenfeld and as on with Julie Chen.
Les Moonves Height
He stands at a height of 5ft 6in.
Les Moonves Salary Range
He earns a salary of $70 Million Per Year.
Les Moonves Net Worth Range
Moonves has an estimated net worth of $700 million.
Les Moonves Trump
Leslie Moonves can appreciate a Donald Trump candidacy. The win by Trump in the presidency was meant to benefit not only America but mostly for CBS. Moonves called the campaign for president a “circus” full of “bomb-throwing,” and he hoped it continued. Roughly 13.5 million tuned in to CBS for a GOP debate last month, making that one of the most-watched debates where nearly 5 million more viewers tuned in to watch Trump battle his GOP rivals than did for a Democratic debate on CBS before.
Moonves later proclaimed that the comment was a joke and that it needed to be put into proper context. His answer was in response to a question about local political ad spending, not TV ratings.
Moonves was justifying Trump merely as a business asset—not.
Les Moonves Sexual Allegations
Six women who had professional dealings with him alleged that Moonves sexually harassed them. Four of the women described forcible touching or kissing during business meetings, in what they said appeared to be a practiced routine.
Moonves also physically intimidated them or threatened to derail their careers. All said that he became cold or hostile after they rejected his advances and that they believed their careers suffered as a result.
Moonves had to defend himself by saying that they had promoted a culture of respect and opportunity for all employees and had consistently found success elevating women to top executive positions across the company.
I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances. Those were mistakes, and I regret them immensely. But I always understood and respected—and abided by the principle—that ‘no’ means ‘no,’ and I have never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone’s career.