Saw this on CNN... https://money.cnn.com/2018/09/09/media/les-moonves-cbs/index.html This could mean big changes for Trek, or not, I guess. Makes me a bit happy to see him finally go though. His disdain for Star Trek always annoyed the Hell outta me.
Unless something drastic happens, Star Trek's on the course it'll be on until 2023 when Alex Kurtzman's contract expires.
Moonves didn't have a disdain for Star trek per se. He has disdain for anything not giving a good ROI - and in 2005 Star Trek had been producing first run episodes on the air for 18 years and it's ROI was way down. But with the overall success of the JJ Abrams reboot film series, Mooves was involved in the greenlight and return of Star trek to TV in streaming form and so far has been a big fan again (because it's got a good ROI for CBS and is helping them grow their streaming service. It's call "Show Business" for a reason. Whether Monves is there of not, when the current run of Star trek drops below a certain ROI, CBS will cancel and shelve it again for a time; until they feel the time is right to use it again for their business goals.
Who cares about his disdain, real or imagined, towards Star Trek? Moonves is being ousted because there are credible allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and workplace retaliation against him by a dozen former employees and counting. The statute of limitations appears to be up for all of these women, which means any criminal prosecution is out of the question. And to add insult to injury, it looks like the "punishment" for this behavior may be a $100 million golden parachute. That's the only story that matters here.
Yup. Trek is back and running, so Monves departing doesn't really mean anything. Whoever steps in won't mean anything either.
Exactly, this guy is predator and deserves to be in prison. But he’ll get away like all powerful men.
I don't know ... maybe the new boss decides to change the course and hold on all the Trek projects on development... I hope not As Phlox said: expect for the better... prepare yourself for the worst.
This has huge implications for Star Trek. Since CBS and Viacom split and Star Trek got split between Paramount and CBS, there has been NO clear vision for the IP. This is an article from 2014 from The Wrap. "A struggle over the U.S.S. Enterprise's past and future helped sour J.J. Abrams on the "Star Trek" franchise and may have contributed to his decision to take on the "Star Wars" universe. Competing ambitions between Paramount, CBS and Abrams' production company Bad Robot over merchandising surrounding the first film in the rebooted "Star Trek" franchise led the director to curtail plans to turn the series into a multi-platform experience that spanned television, digital entertainment and comic books, according to an individual with knowledge of the dispute. "J.J. just threw up his hands," the individual told TheWrap. "The message was, 'Why set up all this when we'll just be competing against ourselves?' The studio wanted to please Bad Robot, but it was allowing CBS to say yay or nay when it came to what was happening with the 'Star Trek' products." https://www.thewrap.com/how-web-star-trek-rights-killed-jj-abrams-grand-ambitions-91766/ All of that wouldn't have been a problem if CBS and Viacom were the same company. Shari Redstone wants to re-merge the two companies and then sell it. Les Moonves has been the biggest obstacle to this remerger. Read ANY articles concerning the CBS-Viacom merger, the lawsuit and you will see this as crystal clear. If the merger goes through, Star Trek would be all under one roof again. This would have immediate effects beginning probably with all productions after Star Trek 4. How this pertains to Discovery is most likely tangential. There may be some more crossover potential between Discovery and the other shows in the Kurtzman deal, but there was nothing standing in the way of that. Clearly, since they cast a new Pike, Sarek, Amanda and Spock already-- we're not going to see Chris Pine or Zack Quinto on Discovery...
My guess is that Kurtzman or whoever succeeds him will be the Czar of all things Star Trek similar to Rick Berman's old role.
David Stapf, who heads up CBS Studios, is not expected right now to step down or be moved aside in the near future despite being a long-time lieutenant of Moonves. He has more to do with what happens with Trek on TV right now than any other executive at CBS.
Moonves is out. "As part of Moonves’ settlement agreement, he and CBS will donate $20 million “to one or more organizations that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace,” according to a company statement. Moonves will also not receive his severance package, and 'any payments to be made in the future will depend upon the results of the independent investigation and subsequent Board evaluation,' the company said. 'We thank Les for his 24 years of service,' CBS board member Bruce Gordon said in the statement. 'Among his achievements, he established a strong management team, giving us great confidence as we accelerate our succession plans and provide continuity of leadership,' Gordon added. 'This agreement maintains an independent Board that is charged with determining the best course for the future of CBS on behalf of all shareholders.'"
Interesting. Nevertheless, there will be a corporate restructuring of some sort as a result of the merger. I don't see how it would make any sense to not have all the various assets of the same IP consolidated under the same department.