Moonves was in charge of first-run syndication and pay/cable programming at
20th Century Fox Television. Also at 20th Century Fox Television, he was vice president of movies and mini-series. Other positions included vice president of development at Saul Ilson Productions (in association with
Columbia Pictures Television) and development executive for Catalina Productions.
Lorimar Television and Warner Bros. Television (1985–1995) Moonves joined
Lorimar Television in 1985 as executive in charge of its movies and mini-series, and in 1988, became head of creative affairs. From 1990 to 1993, he was president at Lorimar. In July 1993, he became president/CEO of
Warner Bros. Television, when Warner Bros. and Lorimar Television combined operations. In this phase of his career, he
green-lighted the shows
Friends and
ER, among many others. From April 1998 until 2003, he was president and chief executive officer at CBS, then was promoted to chairman and CEO of CBS in 2003. CBS had six of the ten most-watched primetime shows in the final quarter of 2005:
CSI,
Without a Trace,
CSI: Miami,
Survivor: Guatemala,
NCIS, and
Cold Case. 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. Moonves was the second most highly-paid executive for 2012 and 2013: he received $58.8 million and $65.4 million. He is considered the second-highest paid CEO, having been paid $68.4 million in 2017. In 2013, Moonves was inducted into the
Television Hall of Fame. He became chairman of CBS in February 2016. He added, "Donald's place in this election is a good thing." Moonves was also open to acquiring smaller film production companies to expand the company's
CBS Films division. At the end of July 2017, Moonves was a part of a first-look television production deal between CBS and
Imagine Entertainment, a feature film, television programming and documentary production company run by filmmaker
Ron Howard and film producer
Brian Grazer. In September 2018, following allegations of
sexual assault, it was reported that CBS was negotiating a $100 million exit package for Moonves and that CBS Chief Operating Officer
Joe Ianniello would be his interim replacement. On September 9, 2018, CBS Corporation announced he had resigned and Joe Iannello would become interim CEO. Moonves and CBS will donate $20 million to the #MeToo movement, money that will be deducted from any severance benefits Moonves may be owed, the company said. The donation to charities promoting women's equality in the workplace would come upon the conclusion of an independent investigation into the allegations, according to the statement. In May 2021, Moonves dropped his claim for $120 million in severance pay, which reverted to ViacomCBS (the result of the
2019 merger of CBS Corporation and
the second Viacom, later
Paramount Global in 2022), and law firm Covington & Burling paid an undisclosed settlement fee to Moonves.
Janet Jackson Following his firing from CBS due to sexual harassment, Moonves was revealed to have been obsessed with ruining R&B singer-songwriter
Janet Jackson's career. His actions had followed the February 1, 2004,
Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, also known as Nipplegate. Jackson's right breast, adorned with a pierced nipple shield (a silver sun), had been exposed by former
NSYNC member, vocalist
Justin Timberlake, for 9/16ths of a second. The brief exposure became the most rewatched moment in the history of
TiVo. According to the documentary
Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson, Moonves wanted an apology from both Jackson and Timberlake. Moonves deemed Jackson's apology as "insufficient" and implemented a blacklist of her music and music videos on
MTV,
VH1 and
Infinity Broadcasting radio stations, all of which were owned by
the original incarnation of Viacom at the time. MTV also had produced the
halftime show, and it was permanently disallowed from producing future halftime shows as a consequence. Jackson had been scheduled to attend the
46th Annual Grammy Awards where she was to perform a tribute to
Luther Vandross, after collaborating with him on the #1 single "
The Best Things in Life Are Free", which was created for the soundtrack to the 1992 film ''
Mo' Money.'' She, along with Timberlake, however, were disinvited from attending unless they released on-air apologies for the "Nipplegate" incident. Only Timberlake went to the ceremony after having approached Moonves in person at CBS's Los Angeles offices, where he tearfully apologized to him. The Vandross tribute was instead performed by
Celine Dion,
Alicia Keys and
Richard Marx. CBS was fined $27,500 for the incident. In June 2006, that amount was later increased to $325,000 by the
Federal Communications Commission. Moonves allegedly asked fellow CBS executives if the corporation could compel Jackson to pay the FCC fines following the investigation of the halftime show incident by Congress.
ZeniMax Media Moonves was on the board of
ZeniMax Media from its foundation in 1999 until 2021, Moonves's personal investment in the company has been noted, as well as his appearances at several launch parties, including for
Bethesda Softworks'
Fallout 3,
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and
Rage.
Sexual assault allegations Moonves voiced support for the
#MeToo movement against sexual harassment in the workplace, even describing it as a "watershed moment" during a November 2017 press conference, and was a founding member of the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace, formed in late 2017 to "tackle the broad culture of abuse and power disparity". In January 2018, CBS Cares released public service announcements concerning how to combat sexual harassment. In July 2018,
The New Yorker published an article by
Ronan Farrow saying that six women accused Moonves of harassment and intimidation, and dozens have described abuse at CBS. Moonves was subsequently placed under investigation by the CBS board. In August 2018, Bucknell University
removed references to Moonves on its website, and University of Southern California suspended Moonves's name from its Media Center. In September 2018,
The New Yorker reported that six more women (in addition to the six original women reported in July) had raised accusations against Moonves, going back to the 1980s. Shortly after resigning as CEO of CBS that month, Moonves released a statement denying all of the sexual misconduct allegations. In November 2018,
The New York Times published an article in which actress
Bobbie Phillips alleged that Moonves sexually assaulted her during the mid-1990s, and was attempting to bury the allegations. The next month, it was revealed Moonves had been involved in paying a $9.5 million settlement to actress
Eliza Dushku, who claimed she was written out of her starring role on CBS drama
Bull as retaliation for reporting sexual harassment by co-star
Michael Weatherly; actress
Cybill Shepherd alleged in a radio interview that Moonves cancelled her sitcom,
Cybill, after she rejected his advances. On December 18, 2018, CBS announced that the board would deny Moonves his $120 million severance pay, as their investigation had found Moonves violated his contract. According to investigators, claims made by the women were credible and led to more claims that were found to be credible during the course of the investigation. In addition, it was claimed that Moonves attempted to interfere with the investigation. Examples of allegations include Moonves refusing to cooperate with investigators, acting "evasive and untruthful" towards investigators, deleting hundreds of messages, and passing off his son's iPad as his own to investigators. On June 21, 2019, advice columnist
E. Jean Carroll wrote in a first-person essay in
New York that Moonves sexually assaulted her in an elevator in the mid-1990s after she interviewed him for a story. Moonves denied the allegation. On May 14, 2021, CBS and Moonves agreed to settle their disputes over the latter's $120 million severance. A joint statement from Moonves and CBS explained that the $120 million would "revert" to CBS, that the cost of the settlement would be borne by CBS's law firm, and that Moonves would contribute the settlement money to various charities.
Moon Rise Unlimited On February 8, 2019,
The New York Times reported that Moonves had founded his own company in
West Hollywood, California named Moon Rise Unlimited after being fired from CBS. ==Public appearances==