Cybill Shepherd says her ’90s CBS sitcom “Cybill” could have “run another five years” if she hadn’t spurned a still-married Les Moonves’ advances during a dinner date with the former CBS Chairman and CEO.
Shepherd was discussing her involvement in the editing process on the show, a situation in which she says nobody was “dominating,” during an interview with SiriusXM’s “The Michelle Collins Show.”
“It’s a great process of very talented people,” Shepherd said. “And it was interesting, because my show could have run another five years, but I didn’t … I didn’t fall on the right side of Les Moonves.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t gonna fall at all for Les,” she added, before detailing a dinner date she had with Moonves a few seasons into “Cybill,” when the CBS chief was married to his then-wife Nancy Wiesenfeld.
“Well, he did, uh, his assistant and my assistant made a dinner date and we went to it and he was- he was telling me his wife didn’t turn him on and some mistress didn’t turn him on,” Shepherd says. “And I’m watching him drink alcohol and I’m going, he says, ‘Well, you know, why don’t you let me take you home?’ I said, ‘No, I’ve got a ride.’ And I had my car outside with a good friend of mine, who was an off-duty LAPD officer.”
Host Collins asked how quickly things changed for Shepherd’s series after that dinner, to which the actress said, “quite shortly afterwards.”
Shepherd said had the evening gone differently, she thinks her comedy, which aired for four seasons from 1995 to 1998 on CBS, “would have run another five years.”
Representatives for CBS did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on Shepherd’s remarks. A spokesperson for the network’s investigation into Moonves declined to comment.
Moonves was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in a July New Yorker article written by Ronan Farrow. Six more women came forward in August. Moonves resigned as CEO of CBS in September following a two-month investigation, but has denied all accusations.
Last week, CBS president and acting CEO Joseph Ianniello told employees that the investigation into the culture at CBS that was sparked by the multiple sexual misconduct accusations made against Moonves was nearing its end, noting it is “frustrating” multiple leaks from the probe have been published in the New York Times.
In one of those stories, a report by lawyers for CBS found that the network would be justified in denying Moonves a $120 million severance payout because he destroyed evidence and misled investigators looking into accusations of sexual misconduct, according to the Times, which cited a draft of a report prepared for the company’s board.
Listen to the excerpt from Shepherd’s interview below.