Stephen Colbert Mocks Former Boss Les Moonves Over Lost Severance Check
UPDATED with video: Back in July, Late Show host Stephen Colbert pledged allegiance to “my guy” Les Moonves while stressing that accountability has to be for everybody in the wake of the first story of sexual misconduct allegations against then-CBS Corp. CEO Moonves.
Since then, Moonves was fired from his job and yesterday the CBS board decided that he should not receive a dime from the $120 million in severance pay he had argued that he was entitled to.
“I’m pretty sure it goes to me,” Colbert said of the $120 billion. “I get half of it, the other half goes to Tom Selleck’s mustache.”
Selleck is the star of Blue Bloods, one of a slew of crime procedural dramas launched over the past two decades that became synonymous with the CBS brand under Moonves.
CBS’ board determined Moonves should forfeit the severance, in part because of his willful failure to cooperate fully with the company’s investigation, Colbert explained, wondering “how on earth” did Moonves “think he would get away with that?”
“Every show he’s greenlit for the last 20 years was about investigations,” Colbert quipped. “On the bright side, CBS has enough material for a new program: NCIS: Human Resources.”
Colbert, who was hired by Moonves to succeed David Letterman as host of CBS’ Late Show, even linked his former boss with his favorite target, President Donald Trump, when surmising what Moonves might do next.
“What job could a famous TV billionaire with sexual assault allegations possibly get — oh my God!” Added Colbert after a pause, “He’d still be better.”
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