Without Julie Chen, The Talk spent an awkward and emotional 10 minutes discussing Les Moonves

The Daily Beast

“We're about to talk about something that affects everybody's lives here at CBS,” said Sharon Osbourne, whose job was to lead the discussion on the CBS boss' ouster after announcing that Chen would be skipping today's Season 9 premiere. “I have never been nervous in my life, but I'm kind of very nervous right now,” Osbourne said, before letting clips of other news shows explain the new sexual misconduct allegations against Moonves. The result was a "deeply uncomfortable" 10 minutes that was both awkward and emotional, says Matt Wilstein. Osbourne, who staunchly defended Moonves in a Twitter statement that discredited his accusers when Ronan Farrow's New Yorker story was first published, deleted the tweet before today's show. "He's not been convicted of any crime, but obviously the man has a problem," Osbourne said today, adding that the new CBS CEO will likely make drastic changes. “We all know they sweep clean," Osbourne said. "Everybody here at CBS is nervous about their jobs. Yes, the ladies at this table will go on and we'll probably find another show if our show, please god, it's not taken off, we'll always find another job and nobody is, you know, in that position yet. It's just historically when somebody new comes in, things change.”