Right at the top of his opening Late Show monologue Monday night, Stephen Colbert addressed the latest Ronan Farrow piece on now-former CBS CEO Les Moonves.
"If you watch the news, you may have heard the head of this network, Leslie Moonves, was forced to step down yesterday," Colbert told his audience. "This came after a second Ronan Farrow exposé featured more women accusing him of sexual harassment and assault. It's never a good sign when you're the subject of a Ronan Farrow double-dip. You don't want it."
The article included several disturbing allegations, Colbert noted, including a woman's account of entering Moonves's office to "discuss a work matter," only to later have Moonves allegedly leave the office for wine before returning "aroused" without his pants. "In total, Moonves is accused of harassing or assaulting 13 women . . . The article is extremely disturbing and I'm not surprised that that's it," Colbert said. "Les Moonves is gone, for at least nine months until he does a set at the Comedy Cellar. We'll see."
The Comedy Cellar reference, of course, is a dig at Louis C.K., who recently returned to stand-up less than a year after admitting to a years-long pattern of sexual misconduct. During his set, C.K. reportedly didn't mention this admission at all.
This doesn't mark the first time Colbert has spoken candidly about his former boss. Back in July, he named Moonves when speaking on the importance of accountability. "Everybody believes in accountability until it's their guy," he said at the time. "And make no mistake, Les Moonves is my guy. He hired me to sit in this chair. He stood behind this show while we were struggling to find our voice. He gave us the time and the resources to succeed. And he has stood by us when people were mad at me."
Colbert added that "accountability is meaningless," however, unless we demand it from everyone "whether it's the leader of the network or the leader of the free world."
