What do you think will happen at CBS now that Moonves is out.

ShawnHill1 said:

Just to save some face, I'll be shocked if she shows up on set tomorrow for The Talk. She wouldn't be ostracized as her husband or Jeff Fager, but she'll land on her feet at another network, if she does choose to leave.

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gopher101media said:

But she will take some real heat for just having taken sides with her husband on the allegations and there will be some serious questions on how much she knew about the misconduct if she even does know anything about it before they had became public. For her to be able to land on her feet at another network it will be a likely uphill battle and she will need to definitely prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she knew nothing and would need to get a divorce as well.

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Viacom will merge the companies together again and put in a CEO, and Board, that will place the Redstone's interests ahead of those of the other shareholders.

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After Les Moonves resigned from CBS in disgrace and yet another woman accused “60 Minutes” producer Jeff Fager of sexual misconduct, sources tell Page Six that Fager didn’t show up for work on Monday.

On Sunday Moonves quit after six new women accused him of sexual misconduct, and a former intern told The New Yorker that she had been standing next to Fager at a work party and that “all of a sudden, I felt a hand on my ass.” She added, “the hand belonged to an arm which belonged to Jeff Fager.”

Now insiders tell Page Six that because of Fager’s conspicuous absence at CBS HQ on Monday morning, “People over there are wondering if CBS will take action quickly now that Les is gone.”

Said another source, “He knows the end is coming for him and is not at work while everything unfolds.”

Asked if Fager could be out for Rosh Hashana, the insider said only, “He’s just not here.”

The intern, Sarah Johansen, who worked for the network in the 2000s, is the seventh former employee to accuse Fager. Nineteen staffers have accused him of looking the other way while sexual harassment was going on in his division. Fager declined to comment to the New Yorker on Johansen’s allegation.

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Jeff Fager, the executve producer of CBS’ “60 Minutes” is in a position these days similar to that of the newsmagazine’s TV audience: He is watching a ticking clock.

Fager remains in his role at the CBS News program, which is supposed to kick off its 51st season on Sunday, September 30. But he and many other CBS News staffers are waiting for the parent company’s board to sift through the findings of a recent investigation into the culture of CBS News. Insiders are not quite sure when that work might be done, and the board did not disclose a timeline in a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday. A probe into CBS News culture led by the law firm Proskauer Rose has been rolled into a larger investigation into the overall company that is being conducted by the CBS board of directors in the wake of revelations about former CEO Leslie Moonves, who was the subject of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by many women. Moonves left his job on Sunday.


Allegations published in The New Yorker in August accused Fager of turning a deaf ear to instances of harassment even as three financial settlements paid to employees of the newsmagazine were related to allegations of discrimination or harassment. A September report by the magazine detailed an allegation by one woman who accused Fager of groping her at a company event.

The new report and Moonves’ exit have renewed the tough spotlight that has shone on the veteran producer and sparked another round of speculation about his fate. CBS News declined to comment on the matter.

“I have encouraged everyone at 60 Minutes to speak to the lawyers reviewing our culture with the hope that our entire staff would have a voice, and the truth would come out about our workplace,” Fager said in a statement to the magazine. He said he believed “that a fair and open investigation will determine 60 Minutes is a good place where talented women and men thrive and produce some of the finest broadcast journalism in America.”

The situation serves as a distraction to the “60 Minutes” staff, who have spent recent weeks screening interviews and reports for broadcast, according to two people familiar with the program. These people said staffers are trying to keep to “business as usual” even as most wonder what the CBS board’s ultimate findings will be.

Fager has supporters at the show, these people said. He is only the second executive producer of the program, and is the successor to the legendary Don Hewitt, who founded the show. During his time there, the show has placed more women in senior roles. Five of eight senior producers, a group that includes Fager, are women. The show’s three broadcast managers, who run news operations, are female. And women constitute a greater portion of the show’s producer. When Fager took the reins of “60 Minutes” in 2004, there were two. There are certainly more in 2018.

Fager was out of the office on Monday and part of Tuesday, the days immediately following the announcement of Moonves’ departure. The two people familiar with the show said the absence had been previously planned and had to do with a commitment related to family. These people suggested he could return to the office this week.

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ShawnHill1 said:

She's already taking some heat by, to paraphrase the late, great Tammy Wynette..."standing by her man" publicly...behind closed doors, who knows what and where their marriage is at this point. It certainly won't as easy for her to land at another network (one that has major viewership, anyway), but she made her own career and wealth before getting involved with Moonves, so I think Chen wouldn't be in a hurry to work anytime soon, if she were to leave CBS altogether.

Let's not forget that with The Talk, it's really Sara Gilbert's baby; you kinda have to feel for her in way, first with the Roseanne nonsense, and now one of her co-hosts is put in a real precarious situation thanks to the co-host's husband (and boss).

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LKellerIII said:

Or if you want to be cynical about it, that both the Roseanne debacle and the Mooves/Chen connection gives higher visibility to The Talk, and will help ratings. Remember that Sara Gilbert is in no way implicated in anybody's bad behavior - neither by Roseanne or her co-host Chen.

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NEW YORK — Jeff Fager, the longtime executive producer of "60 Minutes" who was fired on Wednesday, sent a text message to CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan with a warning over the network's coverage of the sexual harassment accusations against him.

On Sunday, Duncan reached out to Fager for his response to allegations in The New Yorker that he had groped or touched CBS employees at company parties.

"If you repeat these false accusations without any of your own reporting to back them up you will be held responsible for harming me," Fager replied. "Be careful. There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me and if you pass on these damaging claims without your own reporting to back them up that will become a serious problem."

CBS News president David Rhodes announced Wednesday that Fager was leaving the company effective immediately, saying he had violated company policy. Fager said in a statement that his contract was terminated early "because I sent a text message to one of our own CBS reporters demanding that she be fair in covering the story." He did not name Duncan.

"My language was harsh and, despite the fact that journalists receive harsh demands for fairness all the time, CBS did not like it," Fager said. "One such note should not result in termination after 36 years, but it did."

Duncan revealed the contents of the text message on the "CBS Evening News" on Wednesday, "since Jeff Fager publicly referred to our exchange today."

In July, six former CBS News employees told The New Yorker that Fager "would touch employees in ways that made them uncomfortable" after drinking at office parties. The article said 19 current and former employees said Fager enabled a culture that "shielded bad behavior."

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seatownmedia said:

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/60-minutes-chief-fager-cbs-57777435

Well, yes, this is disturbing for CBS.

However, to answer the original question, CBS is a well-oiled machine and I doubt much of this will create ratings and/or revenue problems for the network. Those who are not figure heads still run the network with a common understanding of the goals. Good people will rise above this and maintain the CBS goals. The stockholders will demand it, and I don't think there are many concerns other than they rid themselves of the bad apples. Sumner Redstone is still in ultimate control, and his oversight is likely to maintain the corporation.

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