A day after the New York Times revealed CBS paid yet another hefty sexual harassment settlement, CBS said it as selected 18 organizations to receive the $20 million award that was part of its former chairman and CEO Les Moonves’ separation agreement.

The Times said Thursday (Dec. 13) that CBS paid a $9.5 million settlement to actress Eliza Dushku after it found she was subject to several instances of sexual harassment while on the set of weekly series “Bull” and had been wrongly terminated because she complained of the abuse. 

The $20 million award was deducted from Moonves’ separation package, a $120 million award that has come under fire as allegations that he had abused several women throughout his career in the TV business have piled up.

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According to CBS, the $20 million will go toward supporting the elimination sexual harassment in the workplace, with each organization representing a different critical approach, including efforts to change culture and improve gender equity in the workplace, train and educate employees, and provide victims with services and support.

The list of organizations to receive funds are:

- Catalyst

- Collaborative Fund for Women’s Safety and Dignity (Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors)– re-granting

- Free the Bid

- Freedom Forum Institute – Power Shift Project

- Futures Without Violence

- Girls for Gender Equity / ‘me too.’ Movement

- International Women’s Media Foundation

- National Women’s Law Center

- New York Women’s Foundation – re-granting

- Press Forward

- Producers Guild of America Foundation

- RAINN

- STRIVE International

- Sundance Institute’s Momentum program

- TIME’S UP Entertainment

- TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund

- Women in Film Los Angeles

- Women’s Media Center

CBS will give a portion of the grant to two organizations, the Collaborative Fund for Women’s Safety and Dignity (through Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors) and the New York Women’s Foundation, in order to disburse smaller grants to additional organizations.

CBS worked with advisory firm RALLY, an issue-driven communications firm, to determine the criteria for the grants and develop a strategy that will support new and existing work. The resulting strategy takes three approaches to creating safer and more equitable workplaces: increasing the number of women in positions of power, promoting education and culture change, and supporting victims of harassment and assault.

Both the Collaborative Fund for Women’s Safety and Dignity and the New York Women’s Foundation will be announcing Request for Proposals (RFPs) for organizations to apply for additional funds. 

Former Time Warner chairman and CEO Richard Parsons has resigned as interim chairman of broadcaster CBS Corp., citing health reasons. Take-Two Interactive Software chief and CBS board member Strauss Zelnick will assume the role of interim chairman immediately.

Parsons, who retired from Time Warner in 2008, was named interim chairman of CBS in September, just weeks after a sexual harassment scandal rocked the entertainment giant and resulted in the departure of several executives, including chairman and CEO Les Moonves. Moonves has denied any wrongdoing.

Parsons was considered to be a calming influence on the board and has stepped in during sticky situations at other companies – he was named interim CEO of the NBA Los Angeles Clippers after owner Donald Sterling was forced to sell the team after making a series of racist remarks.

CBS named former chief operating officer Joseph Ianniello as interim CEO and has made other recent management changes, but is still searching for a permanent chief.

Parsons cited his health was the main reason for his decision to step down.

“As some of you know, when I agreed to join the board and serve as the interim chair, I was already dealing with a serious health challenge – multiple myeloma – but I felt that the situation was manageable,” Parsons said in a statement. “Unfortunately, unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges, and my doctors have advised that cutting back on my current commitments is essential to my overall recovery. I trust CBS’ distinguished Board, now led by Strauss Zelnick, as well as CBS’ strong management team led by Joe Ianniello, will continue to successfully guide this Company into its very bright future.”

Zelnick is a widely respected media industry leader who has held management roles in all forms of entertainment, including recorded music at BMG Entertainment, motion pictures and television programming at 20th Century Fox and international television distribution at Columbia Pictures. In 2001 he founded the media-focused private equity firm ZMC (Zelnick Media Capital), and he currently serves as chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, one of the world’s largest interactive entertainment companies.

CBS has tapped former Time Warner chairman and CEO Richard Parsons to be its interim chairman, as the broadcaster searches for a replacement for ousted chairman and CEO Les Moonves and tries to recover from an embarrassing sexual harassment scandal.

Parsons, who was named Time Warner CEO in 2002 and became chairman in 2003, led the media giant through some of its roughest patches. Parsons was named to the CBS board of directors in the wake of the latest scandal, where Moonves was accused by several women of sexually harassing them over the course of his career. CBS has hired an independent investigator to look into the accusations. Former CBS chief operating officer Joe Ianiello was named interim CEO of the company after Moonves' departure. 

“Dick Parsons has a combination of deep industry knowledge and unmatched corporate and board experience,” said CBS’ Nominating and Governance Committee chair Candace Beinecke in a statement. “We are fortunate to have Dick in this leadership role.”

After retiring from Time Warner in 2008, Parsons has become the go-to executive to step in to lead companies through some tricky situations. Shortly after leaving the media giant Parsons was named chairman of Citibank, steering the financial services behemoth through the overall financial crisis until 2012. And in 2014, NBA commissioner Adam Silver tapped him as interim CEO of the NBA Los Angeles Clippers, after owner Donald Sterling was forced to sell the team after making a series of racist remarks. 

CBS also announced that Bruce Gordon and William Cohen, who have served on the board of directors since the broadcaster became a stand-alone public company in 2006, have decided to step down from their posts to focus on other personal and professional priorities.

“We have a distinguished and independent Board that is steadfast in its commitment to serve the best interests of all shareholders,” Parsons said in a statement. “I think I speak for all Board members when I say I look forward to learning more about CBS’ compelling opportunities and how we can help guide and support the Company’s growth.”

CBS has made a formal merger offer to a special committee of Viacom’s board of directors, a proposal that values the cable programmer at below its current stock price and is contingent on CBS’s top two executives – chairman and CEO Les Moonves and chief operating officer Joseph Ianniello – remaining in charge of the combined company.

Sources confirmed a report in the Wall Street Journal that said CBS made the offer, basically a ratio of the CBS shares that would be exchanged for Viacom stock, that at least initially values Viacom below its current market capitalization of about $12.5 billion, in the past few days. The senior leadership structure proposed for the new company would be essentially CBS’s current senior leadership. Viacom CEO Bob Bakish is not included in that list but people familiar with the offer say there is no reason he wouldn’t have some role in the combined company. Still, it appears that Bakish, who took the Viacom helm of the troubled network after former CEO Philippe Dauman was ousted after several skirmishes with the controlling Redstone family, is being left out in the cold.

Most analysts expected Moonves to take the top spot – his track record in building CBS into the No. 1 broadcaster alone would ensure that. But its gets trickier as you move down the ranks. Ianniello has proven to be a more than capable No. 2 to Moonves – he was also instrumental in engineering the split in 2005 that cleaved Viacom into two separate entities. But Bakish, a long-time Viacom executive who was tapped for a job nobody wanted, has surprisingly engineered what appears to be the start of a turnaround. Viacom was in turmoil in 2016, with Sumner Redstone battling Dauman, other top executives leaving in droves, ratings falling precipitously and a general consensus that Viacom, once the premier programmer for the youth audience, had lost its mojo.

Bakish wasted little time after he was named permanent CEO in December 2016. By February 2017 he initiated a plan to concentrate on six core networks, invest heavily in original programming and pump new resources into advanced advertising initiatives. Viacom has shown early signs of a recovery – ratings are on the upswing – and Bakish has said that while 2017 was a stabilizing year, he sees growth opportunities ahead. .

A deal that doesn’t include Bakish could be troublesome, according to people familiar with both companies. Shari Redstone hand-picked the former Viacom International executive for the CEO job and dialed back her plans to merge CBS and Viacom in 2016 solely because she wanted to give Bakish more time to execute his plan. 

It is quite possible that the CBS proposal is the start of a longer negotiation. While sources said there is no official deadline to consummate a deal, reports have said both sides would like to at least finalize an offer by May, when both companies are scheduled to release quarterly results.

Investors appeared to favor the CBS offer. CBS shares closed at $52.86 each on Tuesday, up $2.15 each or 4.2%, while Viacom shares fell 3.7% ($1.13 each ) to $29.42 per share.

CBS chairman and CEO Les Moonves threw some water on the continued speculation that the broadcast company would recombine with its troubled corporate sister Viacom, telling an industry audience Thursday they are “not in active discussions” concerning a merger.

Speculation has been heavy that CBS would hook up with Viacom, as the troubled cable programmer has struggled with a declining audience and falling ad revenue. The ouster of executive chairman and CEO Philippe Dauman in August after a bloody battle with the company’s controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone – who also owns the majority of CBS voting shares – only added fuel to the speculative fires.

Viacom and CBS split in 2006, a deal that has worked out far better for CBS as it has grown its broadcast and Showtime Networks assets considerably over the past decade.

Moonves, speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment conference in Los Angeles, said Viacom and CBS are “not in active discussions.”

"The truth of the matter is we are a standalone public company, we are really happy with the hand we are playing, we are doing extraordinarily well on our own with our own assets,” Moonves said. “We’re never going to do something that is bad for the CBS shareholders or the employees.”

CBS chairman and CEO Les Moonves received total compensation of $56.8 million in 2015, a 1% reduction from the $57.2 million he got in the prior year, while the company’s largest shareholder, Sumner Redstone, saw his haul plunge 83% to $1.8 million, according to a proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday.

According to the document, Moonves received a base salary of $3.5 million, a $19 million bonus (down from $25 million in 2014) and stock awards valued at $25.5 million (up from $14.5 million in 2014). Moonves’ option awards fell to $7.2 million from $10 million in 2014. His pension value also dipped in 2015 to $421,021 from $2.8 million in 2014.

Redstone, in poor health and the focus of a nasty court battle concerning his overall mental competency, took the biggest hit, logging overall compensation of $1.8 million for the year, down from the $10.8 million he received in 2014. In 2013, Redstone received $57.2 million in total comp.

Redstone received the same base salary in 2015 of $1.75 million, but he received no bonus, stock awards and option awards. The 92-year-old media mogul, who relinquished his executive chairman title in February, still controls 80% of CBS’ and Viacom’s voting stock.

CBS chief operating officer Joe Ianniello also took a slight reduction in pay (2%), receiving $26.4 million in total compensation compared to $27.03 in 2014. Senior executive vice president, chief administrative officer and chief human resources officer Anthony Ambrosio received $4.1 million in total compensation in 2015, down 9% from the $4.5 million he received in the prior year, while senior executive vice president and chief legal officer Lawrence Tu took home $7.5 million in total  compensation, down 34% from the $11.3 million he received in 2014.    

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Cowan has denied a motion by Viacom chairman emeritus Sumner Redstone’s attorneys to dismiss a  lawsuit by his former girlfriend questioning his competency, scheduling a trial to decide the matter a little more than two months away.

The decision by Judge Cowan to allow the suit to go forward is a victory for Redstone’s former companion and caregiver Manuela Herzer, who first shone a spotlight on the 92-year-old Redstone’s deteriorating health in November. In that suit Herzer claimed Redstone was unaware of his surroundings and could no longer make health care decisions for herself. Herzer objected to being removed as Redstone’s health care agent – a role picked up by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman and claimed that Redstone had become “a living ghost.”

While Viacom and Dauman have claimed Redstone is alert and aware – although a series of strokes have diminished his ability to communicate – Redstone stepped down as executive chairman of both Viacom and CBS in February, giving those roles to CBS chief Les Moonves and Viacom’s Dauman, respectively.

In his ruling, Cowan cited a 37-page report from Dr. Stephen Read, who Herzer hired, that depicts the former executive as lacking the capacity to make personal health care and financial decisions.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Cowan wrote the Read report provided enough details to “raise a reasonable question about whether Redstone lacks capacity.” He set a court date for May 6 on the matter.

In sharp contrast to its corporate cousin Viacom, CBS reported a 6% rise in revenue to a record $3.9 billion during the fourth quarter, while advertising revenue inched up 1%.

In a statement, CBS said the growth was driven by a 16% increase in content licensing and distribution revenues, reflecting higher international television licensing sales. Affiliate and subscription fees grew 13%, driven by continued increases in retransmission consent revenue and fees from network affiliated stations. The slight uptick in ad revenue was led by an 8% rise in network advertising, partially offset by the benefit to local broadcasting in 2014 from political revenues.

The announcement comes days after former corporate partner Viacom reported disappointing fiscal Q1 results and more than a week after Viacom and CBS executive chairman Sumner Redstone stepped down from both of those positions, naming CBS CEO Les Moonves chairman of CBS and Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman executive chairman of the cable programmer.

“We had a terrific fourth quarter, and CBS is now in position to build strong momentum throughout 2016,” Moonves said in a statement. “Our base businesses are growing well, thanks to the strength of our premium content and the continued improvement in the advertising marketplace. In addition, with Super Bowl 50 here in the first quarter and political spending ramping up into the fourth, we expect 2016 will be a very good year for advertising. At the same time, our other high-margin revenue streams continue to thrive.”

Moonves added that retrans fees are expected to reach $1 billion in 2016, a year earlier than first anticipated, and are on track to double to $2 billion by 2020.

He added that streaming services CBS All Access, CBSN, and Showtime over the top are attracting young viewers.

“So no matter how quickly the digital world changes — and no matter how viewers want their content — CBS is positioned to succeed,” Moonves added in the statement.

A dramatic decline in the value of his pension forced an 82.5% decline in CBS non-executive chairman Sumner Redstone’s 2014 compensation, while a big dip in the value of his stock awards took a bite out of CEO Les Moonves’ total pay for the year, according to a proxy statement filed Friday.

Redstone took home $10.8 million in total compensation for the year, 82.5% less than the $57.2 million he was awarded in 2013. The difference was a dramatic decline in the change in his pension value – from $45.4 million in 2013 to $21,078 in 2014. 

Moonves’s 2014 total comp dipped 14.5% to $57.2 million from $66.9 million in 2013, largel because of a drop in the value of stock awards -- $14.5 million in 2014 vs. 26.5 million in 2013 – and a decline in his annual bonus from $28.5 million in 2013 to $25 million in 2014.

Other executives saw their total compensation rise for the year – chief operating officer Joseph Ianiello received $27.03 million (up 10% from the prior year), while senior executive vice president, chief administrative officer and chief human resources officer Anthony Ambrosio received a 10% bump in pay from $4.05 million to $4.46 million.

CBS said it has extended its employment deal with CEO Leslie Moonves an additional two years to 2019.

The new deal keeps his annual base salary at its current level and he also is eligible for an annual performance-based bonus and will receive equity-based compensation that further ties the value of the agreement to the performance of CBS stock.

Last year, Moonves received total compensation of $66.9 million, including a $3.5 million salary, a $28.5 million bonus, $26.5 million in stock awards and other incentives.

At the end of his employment deal the 65-year old Moonves will become an executive advisor to the company for an additional five years and will have the option to establish a production company under CBS’s auspices.

Moonves joined CBS in 1995 as president of entertainment and was promoted to president and CEO of CBS Television in 1998. He became chairman of the network in 2003, and was later named co-president and co-chief operating officer of Viacom and chairman of CBS in 2004. In 2006, when Viacom split its businesses into two publicly traded companies, Moonves was named president and CEO of the newly formed CBS Corporation.