Examining the Leslie Moonves CBS President run .

[SUPERECWFAN1]

While if allegations are proven true that Moonves is a terrible person , then by all rights he should face punishment. I agree there but one claim has came out that Moonves started a decline of female driven TV shows and many point to the rise of CSI on the network. I'm gonna go year by year with this thread for shows that starred women and see what the decline and approval rate was.

I know the creator of Designing Women has said Moonves tried to ruin her career and stalled many successful shows. So lets examine this and some moves.


1995 - Leslie Moonves became President of CBS. The shows on the 1995 CBS schedule that featured women :


Almost Perfect (debuted September 1995 and ran 2 seasons)
Cybill (Debuted January 1995 and ran til 1998)
Bonnie Hunt Show (Debuted Sept 1995)
Touched by an Angel (Debuted before Moonves in 1994 but was on network til 2003)
Murder She Wrote *(This could be counted as a Moonves move that ended the long running series as ill explain)
The Nanny (before Moonves in 1993 and ran til 1999)
Can't Hurry Love* (This one debuted in Sept 1995 and was cancelled...will explain below as well)
Murphy Brown (began in 1988 and ran til 1998 , before his departure announced the series would return in 2018)
Courthouse (Debuted in September 1995 and ran 13 episodes)
Central Park West*
New York News *
Dweebs (Debuted 1995 , cancelled within 7 episodes)
Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (Debuted before Moonves in 1993 and ended in 1998)





- Ok that was the schedule at the start of 1995. The ones with stars ill try and explain. Murder She Wrote had ran on CBS for over 11 years at that same schedule on Sunday nights. In fact the series had ran so long that Lansbury once was gonna leave the show and have it end , but CBS in 1989 convinced her for 2+ years to take a light schedule and the show did a rotating format focusing on characters she had introduced. Anyhow she came back in 1991 full time and in 1995 a key move Moonves made it appears was to change the time slot.

Perhaps it was a move to end a long standing series or maybe they thought people would watch Murder She Wrote against Friends. Instead it lost millions of viewers and by the end of the year was cancelled. CBS itself never really recovered from this dumb move on Sunday nights either. The show would get a few TV movies each year going into 2003.

Can't Hurry Love is a weird case. The show was a top ranked #24 rated show and it was doing a 11+ rating then following the Nanny at 8:30. But the decision to replace the series with a lesser draw in (Almost Perfect) is ...well kinda wild to see. New York News and Central Park West were 2 shows that heavily promoted Mary Tyler Moore and Mariel Hemmingway as main stars . You can debate on that one but this was an ensemble drama in both cases.




1996 - Moonves was fully in charge and maybe 1995 was him settling in. But here we go....


Pearl (Debuted in Sept 1996 and starred Rhea Pearlman , ran 1 season)
Temporarily Yours (Starring Debi Mazar , debuted in Sept 1995 , ran 6 episodes and cancelled)
FEDS (Debuted in 1997 , starred Blair Brown and cancelled within 3 months)
Orleans * (Starring Larry Hangman ran only 8 episodes in 1997 before being cancelled)


Orleans starred the legend from DALLAS who played J.R Ewing. But the show was notable that it was created by a former Louisiana judge's daughter Toni Graphia. She was the creator of this one. Other shows returned as we saw. They promoted Orleans heavy from what is claimed and CBS even gave it Dallas old time slot as well.



1997 -


Style & Substance (debuted in Sept. 1997 and cancelled within 5 episodes)
Four Corners (Debuted in 1998 , prime time drama/soap opera featuring female lead. Cancelled within 5 episodes)
The Simple Life* (Starring Judith Light it ran in summer 1998 and quietly cancelled)


Ok only 3 new shows debuted starring female leads and this is where its funny. The Simple Life was basically another version of ....Style & Substance and a rip on Martha Stewart it appears. Stewart its claimed hated the Style & Substance show and it quickly disappeared like this one did.


1998 -

Thanks (Debuted in August 1998 , cancelled within 6 episodes)
Maggie Winters (Starring Faith Ford and Shirley Knight , debuted in Sept 1998 and ran 16 episodes)
To Have and To Hold (Debuted Sept 1998 , starring Miora Kelly and cancelled within 9 episodes)



1999 -

Family Law (Starring Kathleen Quinlon , Dixie Carter and Julie Warner ...debuted Sept 1999 and ran 3 seasons)
Love & Money (Starring Paget Brewster , debuted in Sept 1999 and ran 6 episodes before being cancelled)
Judging Amy* (Starring Amy Brennaman and Tyne Daly , debuted Sept 1999 and ran 6 seasons !)






Its pretty clear that Judging Amy was the biggest success that Moonves had in 1990's as far as female shows go. The drama series ran 6 seasons and over 138 episodes. It also had a female creator involved.



In the next part ill examine the 2000's and what shows came about there.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Moonves hits had started to emerge in late 1990's and 2000's. He had gotten JAG , Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens launched. 1 show (JAG) would spawn the huge NCIS franchise that has long out ran the show it spun off from. Raymond itself would start a run of #1 sitcoms that CBS would have for years and still going.




- 2000



Bette - (Starring Bette Midler (Yes that Bette Midler , the show debuted in Sept. 2000 and ran only 16 episodes before being cancelled)
That's Life - (Starring Heather Page Kent , Debi Mazar and Ellen Burstyn and created by Diane Ruggerio. Show ran 2 seasons)
Kate Brasher (Starring Mary Stuart Masterson and Rhea Pearlman , debuted in 2001 and cancelled within 6 episodes)



2001 -

The Ellen Show - (Starring Ellen DeGeneres debuted in Sept. 2001 , cancelled within 13 episodes)


2002 -

My Big Fat Greek Life - (Nia Vardalos starred in this series that continued from movie. Debuted in 2003 , cancelled within 6 episodes)
Presidio Med - (Starring Dana Delany and Sasha Alexander , created by John Wells. Debuted Sept 2002 and cancelled within 11 episodes)



2003 -



Cold Case - (Starring Kathryn Morris as lead character , debuted Sept. 2003 , ran 7 seasons and 158 episodes)
Joan of Arcadia - (Starring Amber Tamblyn , debuted in Sept. 2003 , ran 2 seasons and 45 episodes)



2004 -

No female led shows were aired from what I have seen.


2005 -

Courting Alex - (Starring Jenna Elfman , debuted January 2006 and cancelled within 8 episodes)
New Adventures of Old Christine - (Starring Julia-Louise Dreyfuss , debuted spring 2006. Ran 5 seasons and 88 episodes)
Close to Home - (Starring Jennifer Finnigan , Debuted Oct. 2005 , ran 2 seasons for 44 episodes)
Tuesday Night Book Club - (Reality Show based around women who ran a book club , ran 1 season and cancelled)
Ghost Whisperer - (Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt , debuted Sept. 2005 running for 5 seasons and 107 Episodes)
Threshold - (Starring Carla Gugino as main character , Debuted Sept. 2005 ran 9 episodes before being cancelled)


2006 -

No Shows shown that was put into production for 2006.


2007 -

Cane * (Debuted in Sept. 2007 , cancelled within 13 episodes as a drama)


Cane itself starred Jimmy Smitts and was a soap opera drama about a family. But the creator was female who did this one.



2008 -

The Ex-List - (Starring Elizabeth Reaser , debuted Oct. 2008 and ran 4 episodes)



2009 -

Accidentally on Purpose - (Starring Jenna Elfman , debuted Sept. 2009 and cancelled within 18 episodes)
Julianna Margulies - (Starring Julianna Margulies ..the show debuted Sept. 2009 and ran 7 seasons and 156 Episodes)




- Now in looking at this list of shows Moonves run had a number of female led drama shows that either became critical hits (Joan of Arcadia) or huge successful shows in Cold Case , The Good Wife and Ghost Whisperer. The shows ran for over 100+ episodes and became hits in his time. He also hit a comedy HR with Christine after attempts with various actresses from other shows had failed.

I'm gonna stop here at 2010 since this decade isn't over. But the charge that Moonves held female driven shows back due to CSI's success is kinda...false here. In his run there was only 2 years that a female driven show wasn't in production or created from this. He seemingly bet on stars like Bette Midler , Julia Louise-Dreyfuss , and Jenna Elfman . But those shows failed in spectacular order. And in Elfman's case they tried a couple times as we see.

Moonves isn't some innocent guy for sure. I do believe he personally took it out on the lady who created Designing Women as we know. But a charge about creating female shows ...well there was shows that made it to CBS. But like any network shows that debut either they hit or miss.

[ChrisIII]

Current controversy aside, a lot of people blamed him for the cancellation of Star Trek Enterprise over a decade ago.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Current controversy aside, a lot of people blamed him for the cancellation of Star Trek Enterprise over a decade ago.

Its claimed he had a hand in that one from what I read.