The last five months have been a never-ending stream of bad and worse news for Les Moonves, the former chairman and C.E.O. of CBS, who fought vigorously to preserve his company’s independence from the conquering Shari Redstone until a double-barreled Ronan Farrow fusillade, and a report that he pleasured himself in a doctor’s office, exposed decades of alleged lecherous behavior. (Moonves has called various accusations untrue, said he always abided by the principle that “no means no,” and said he only kissed the doctor.) Then, this week, came word from CBS’s newfangled board of directors that Moonves would be fired from CBS “for cause” and therefore would not receive any of the $120 million that the company had set aside for him in an escrow account as a possible severance payment. (According to Moonves’s lawyer, “The conclusions of the CBS board were foreordained and are without merit.”)

In response to such news, most adults would back down, if they hadn’t already. Moonves, however, appears to covet redemption. According to an interview he gave yesterday to Agenda, an obscure corporate-governance news service affiliated with the Financial Times, Moonves said his fight for the severance money “is far from over.” That’s presumably hyperbole, but Moonves is right that, as I reported back in September, his separation agreement with CBS does permit him to take his severance dispute to arbitration, in New York City. He has 30 days to decide whether to arbitrate now that the CBS board has fired him for cause.

The arbitration, if it were to occur, would be conducted before three arbitrators under the auspices of the American Arbitration Association. Moonves would be able to select an arbitrator and CBS would be able to select an arbitrator. These two arbitrators would then select the third arbitrator. “The decision in such arbitration shall be final and conclusive on the parties,” according to Moonves’s 2017 CBS contract, which is the controlling document for the process. Interestingly, if Moonves prevails in the arbitration, or at least one aspect of it, his costs, including legal fees, will be borne by CBS. If he loses the arbitration, he will have to pay his own costs, including legal fees.

If he were thinking rationally at this point, Moonves would get the help he clearly needs, put this ugly chapter in his life behind him, and start down a new path. Moonves does not need the money. Since 2006, when CBS was spun out of Viacom as a separate public company, Moonves has consistently been among the top-paid C.E.O.s. In 2017, Moonves was paid $69.3 million, and he averaged around $60 million or so in the prior years. In 2017, Moonves received perquisites worth $272,000 (for transportation, including a car and driver and use of the corporate jet), as well as $640,000 to keep him safe and secure. He also owns nearly 3.4 million shares of CBS stock, worth these days around $160 million. In other words, Moonves probably has a net worth approaching $500 million. Another $120 million is a material amount, but it’s not going to change his lifestyle. He can already buy a jet or use NetJets to replace what he no doubt was quite accustomed to when he was running CBS. (I also feel certain, knowing Hollywood, that Moonves could perhaps one day still get some kind of producing deal.)

Moreover, arbitrating may just delay the inevitable. Moonves, who has apparently been holed up in Los Angeles, can’t possibly believe that he can convince two arbitrators that he somehow was unfairly dismissed from CBS. And that’s without knowing the full contents of the report, which has now been given to the CBS board by attorneys at Debevoise & Plimpton and Covington & Burling. The report, a draft of which leaked to The New York Times, is plenty damning of Moonves’s behavior over many years. A source close to the company told me the investigation will cost CBS as much as $100 million.

Joe Ianniello, Moonves’s old protégé and the current interim C.E.O., has done well to hold the place together these past five months and to help restore much-depleted company morale. He probably deserves a chance to become the C.E.O. on a full-time basis, if only for sentimental reasons (and despite the fact that I was removed from the guest list for the annual CBS Christmas party earlier this month).

But realpolitik being what it is, Ianniello is probably considered too close to the disgraced Moonves to get the job on a full-time basis, especially since the CBS show is being run by Shari Redstone these days. Ianniello remains on the list to get the job full-time, but considering that Redstone did not want him as Moonves’s No. 2 as part of the second proposed merger with Viacom earlier this year, he can’t be considered anything but a long shot at best, despite a noticeable increase in the level of sycophancy around Black Rock.

The Wall Street Journal reported last night that Tom Staggs now appears most likely to succeed Moonves. Staggs, a longtime Disney executive who left the company two years ago after he lost his gambit to replace Bob Iger, would be a good leader for CBS. At 57, he remains youthful, energetic, and experienced in the ways of Hollywood. I first met Staggs back in the early 1990s, when Disney hired Lazard, where I was then working, to advise it on the restructuring of the financial and operational disaster that was Euro Disney. We were both finance grunts at the time, but it was clear Staggs, who was once a banker at Morgan Stanley, had an admirable level of ambition, intelligence, and competence that could help restore what’s been missing from CBS for more than a decade.

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