CBS Will Keep Leslie Moonves On As an Unpaid Advisor

Leslie Moonves finally stepped down as CEO of CBS after a fresh round of sexual assault and harassment allegations made it impossible for the network to justify keeping him on its payroll. But that doesn’t mean he won’t be sticking around as an “unpaid advisor”! How very Ivanka of him.

Despite another damning Ronan Farrow report in which six more women accused Moonves of misconduct, CBS still sees fit to hang on to him in an unsalaried capacity, NBC reports.

The ability to serve as unpaid anything is a luxury afforded only to the very wealthy, which luckily, Moonves is. According to The Wrap, his starting salary at CBS in 2006 was $28.6 million, climbing steadily before shooting up to $69.9 in 2011. By 2017, it had been reined in to a modest $69.3 million, which was still $20 million more than the next-highest paid CEO in the business, Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes.

Also, it’s unlikely Moonves is going to walk away empty-handed, having negotiated a nice $120 million payout for himself contingent on the results of an investigation. Sorry, that’s $140 million, but $20 million will be allocated to “#MeToo causes. God forbid he just agree to give the whole thing away.

In total, 12 women have accused Moonves of harassment and assault. In Farrow’s most recent New Yorker article, Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb alleged that in the late ‘80s, Moonves exposed himself to her, forced her into oral sex, and threw her against a wall. In the majority of cases, the women said that refusing Moonves resulted in professional retaliation.

Moonves has maintained his innocence, saying: “Untrue allegations from decades ago are now being made against me that are not consistent with who I am.” This is a slick departure from his last statement, which was: “I recognize that there were times decades ago when I may have made some women uncomfortable by making advances.” Clearly Moonves feels strongly that his actions from “decades ago” are no longer relevant, despite the careers that he undoubtedly derailed.