Why Les Moonves' departure is unlikely to hurt CBS' programming

Vulture

CBS isn't like The Weinstein Company, which completely collapsed after Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct scandal. Even though Moonves played an important role in the daily life at CBS, he leaves behind an executive team who -- should they remain in place -- continue doing what CBS does best, according to Josef Adalian. "Moonves has benefited from the tendency (by both reporters and corporate boards) to put too much value in the Great Man theory of history," says Adalian. "In fact, whatever success CBS has had the past two decades was not the result of a single designer suit-clad superhero picking hit shows and negotiating the right talent deals. A small army of Eye execs past and present were instrumental in shaping the network, both for good (Everybody Loves Raymond, NCIS, The Big Bang Theory) and ill (Kevin Can Wait). Plus, as with any network or streaming service, the real drivers of success at CBS have been the show creators and stars who make hit programs. CBS won’t be the same place without Moonves, but like Apple after Steve Jobs, it won’t collapse either. It’s telling that late last week, as multiple news outlets reported Moonves was in settlement talks, CBS’s stock price actually went up."

ALSO:

• Norah O'Donnell addressed Moonves' exit on CBS This Morning: "This is really hard. It is. It’s hard for everybody at CBS News"
• Moonves could still be paid $120 million in severance of he's cleared by an internal probe
• CBS must do more post-Moonves to address the overall culture of complicity and complacency at the network
• CBS stock falls after Moonves' exit
• Kathy Griffin slams Moonves and Julie Chen in Twitter rant