Les Moonves

Les Moonves presents the kind of legacy I find genuinely difficult to weigh. As a programming executive, his instincts were arguably the sharpest of his generation; he rebuilt CBS into a ratings machine and shaped two decades of American television. But the manner of his exit in 2018, resigning amid numerous allegations of sexual harassment and assault, cannot be footnoted away. To me his story is less about one man than about how unchecked power operates inside media empires. I include him in this database not to celebrate him, but because understanding television history honestly requires looking at both the brilliance and the wreckage he left behind.

Leslie Roy Moonves ( LESS MOON-vess; born October 6, 1949) is an American retired media executive who was the chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation from 2006 until his resignation in September 2018 following numerous allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault and abuse. He has been married to television personality Julie Chen since 2004.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Name (English)

Les Moonves

Name (Japanese)

レスリー・ムーンヴズ

Reading

れすりー・むーんゔず

Born

October 6, 1949 (age 76)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Ox

Origin

New York City, New York, United States

Blood type

Private

Height

Private

Agency

Private

Occupation

entrepreneur / chief executive officer

Elementary school

Private

Junior high

Private

High school

Valley Stream Central High School

University

Bucknell University

Spouse

Private

Children

Private

Parents

Private

Siblings

Private

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les%20Moonves

Tags

• New York
• entrepreneur
• chief executive officer

Last updated

2026-06-10

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.