Stephen Colbert Mocks Les Moonves Over Loss of $120M Severance

After news broke that Leslie Moonves will not be getting a $120 million severance as CBS concluded a months-long investigation into sexual harassment allegations made against the former CEO, Stephen Colbert addressed the network’s decision during Tuesday night’s The Late Show. 

“I think our network has the perfect sound effect for this,” Colbert said before playing The Price is Right‘s iconic losing music. 

Colbert went on to question what would happen to the money in Moonves’ severance package. “I’m pretty sure it goes to me,” the host said. “I get half of it, the other half goes to Tom Selleck’s mustache.”

After Moonves was accused of sexual misconduct earlier this year in an exposé by Ronan Farrow, CBS hired an investigative team to interview as many as 300 people, according to insiders, in order to examine the allegations against Moonves. 

“Every show he’s greenlit for the last 20 years was about investigations,” Colbert quipped of Moonves. “On the bright side, CBS has enough material for a new program: NCIS: Human Resources.”

‘The Late Show’ host then went on to compare Moonves to President Donald Trump: “What job could a famous TV billionaire with sexual assault allegations possibly get — oh, my god!” Colbert said, before adding, “He’d still be better.”

After first hearing the news of the accusations, Colbert was quick to admit that he questioned the validity of the story until he learned that Farrow wrote the piece. Though Colbert referred to Moonves as “my guy,” he explained that he believes in “accountability” during a Late Show monologue in July. 

“Everybody believes in accountability until it’s their guy, and make no mistake: Les Moonves is my guy,” he said. “Accountability is meaningless unless it’s for everybody, whether it’s the leader of a network or the leader of the free world.”

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Leslie Moonves Won't Get $120 Million in Severance, CBS Says