Leslie Moonves

Whether appearing on David Letterman’s late night talk show or battling Howard Stern in the court of public opinion, CBS Corporation president and CEO Les Moonves knew how to turn on the consummate showman charm in an age of high profile businessmen running showbiz. A would-be actor, Moonves found fame and fortune behind a desk, successfully running network television for the better part of the last twenty years.

Moonves was born on Dec. 23, 1948 in New York City, NY and graduated from Bucknell University. Upon graduation, Moonves pursued an acting career at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, studying under the renowned Sanford Meisner. He performed in numerous stage and television productions before opting to produce plays on Broadway and in Los Angeles. His theater producer stint helped introduced Moonves to the business side of show business. One of Moonves’ first positions was as a development executive for Catalina Productions, followed by President of Development for Saul Ilson Productions (in association with Columbia Pictures Television). The ever-ambitious Moonves’ next big jump was to Vice President of Movies and Mini-series for Twentieth Century Fox Television, where he was also in charge of first-run syndication and pay/cable programming.

In 1985, Moonves joined Lorimar Productions (at the time a huge TV studio), again as an executive in charge of its movies and miniseries. He then promptly rose to head of creative affairs in 1988, before finally serving as President of Lorimar from 1989 to 1993. In July of 1993, Warner Bros. Television combined operations with Lorimar, and not surprisingly, Moonves was installed as the President of the new company. With his new position, he oversaw a television division that supplied the greatest number of programs to network television for nine consecutive years, culminating in a record-setting 22 series including “ER” (NBC, 1994 - ), “Friends” (NBC, 1994-2005) and “The Drew Carey Show (ABC, 1995-2004) on the 1995-96 network schedules.

CBS came calling in 1995, hiring Moonves as President of CBS Entertainment. In 1998, he was elevated to President and CEO of CBS Television and under his aegis, the formerly struggling network developed television’s #1 drama – Jerry Bruckheimer’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (2001- ). Other network hits included the monster of all reality series, “Survivor” (2001 - ); “Everybody Loves Raymond” (1997-2005), “Two and a Half Men” (2003 - ), “The King of Queens” (1998 - ), “Without a Trace” (2002 - ), “Cold Case” (2004 - ) and the Emmy Award-winning reality series, “The Amazing Race” (2002 - ) (again with Bruckheimer). To no one’s surprise, CBS became America’s most watched television network – going from a stodgy fourth to a shiny first under Moonves’ tenure, making him the only U.S. broadcast network executive who could claim an increase in viewers in 2003.

That same year, Moonves was promoted again to Chairman and CEO of CBS. And in early 2004, was given the reins as co-president and co-CEO of Viacom, Inc. (sharing duties with Sumner Redstone) until December of 2005, when Viacom spun off CBS from the corporate umbrella with the name “CBS Corporation.”

From early 2004, Moonves began to make regular contributions to “The Late Show with David Letterman” (CBS, 1993 - ) – this time back in front of the camera or by phone call-ins. These humorous appearances originated from a criticism Letterman had with his CBS bosses – that Jay Leno (Letterman’s chief rival for over a decade) was prominently featured in an ad for the “The People’s Choice Awards” on the CBS website. On “The Late Show,” Letterman comically warned the “CBS stooges in the control room” to call his buddies “before things turn ugly.” Moonves obliged, and continued to make appearances with the same tongue-in-cheek format, while Letterman sarcastically discussed current events and the status of CBS with its well humored CEO.

Within a few short months, Moonves experienced all the good and the bad life can offer. First – the good. On Dec. 23, 2004, Moonves married Julie Chen, a presenter on CBS’ “The Early Show” and “Big Brother” (CBS, 2000 - ), leaving the executive happily settled down. Then, the bad. In February of 2005, Moonves was identified as the executive directly responsible for ordering the cancellation of UPN’s ‘Star Trek: Enterprise” (2001 - 2005) and the end of the 18-year Star Trek television franchise. Trekkies round the world were united in their hatred, holding Moonves personally responsible for their lot in life.

The following year saw life return to normal for the savvy Moonves. In January of 2006, he was instrumental in making the deal that brought together CBS-owned UPN with Time/Warner-owned The BE to form to The CW Network, which would debut in the Fall of 2006. But despite successful business deals, Moonves was forced to wage a nasty public battle with shock jock Howard Stern, leaving his funny, laid-back “Late Night” persona in the dust. In February of 2006, Moonves led CBS to file a $500 million lawsuit against Stern for allegedly breaching his contract by failing to disclose the details of his deal with Sirius Satellite Radio while still employed by Infinity Broadcasting (a subsidiary of CBS). Stern lobbied back that Moonves was anything but a good man, to put it lightly. The back-and-forth, with Stern trashing Moonves from Letterman’s couch to Moonves releasing carefully worded statements through CBS lawyers, continued on into the spring, even as Stern made the jump to satellite radio.