Cybill Shepherd Claims Les Moonves Killed Her Show After She Rejected Him

In a Tuesday interview with SiriusXM’s The Michelle Collins Show, Shepherd discussed her working relationship with Moonves, claiming that her Golden Globe-winning show, which aired between 1995-1998, was axed because she shot down an offer to go home with the high-powered media executive following a dinner date.

“Well his assistant and my assistant made a dinner date and we went to it and he was telling me his wife didn’t turn him on, some mistress doesn’t turn him on and I’m watching him drink alcohol,” the actress said. “He says, ‘Well, why don’t you let me take you home?’ And I said ‘No, I’ve got a ride.’ And I had my car outside with a good, good friend of mine who was an off-duty LAPD officer.”

The actress said “quite shortly” after the incident, Moonves began sending her notes criticizing her program. “‘Don’t have Cybill talk while she’s eating,’” Moonves is said to have ordered Sheppard. “Then it was, OK, we had done one menopause episode, then we were going to do a second one. They said you can’t use menses, menstruation or period and I fought to say period.”

The 68-year-old actress continued: “Then it was, we had done one menopause episode, then we were going to do a second one and they said, ‘You can’t use menses menstruation or period,’ and I fought to save ‘period’ and that ended up in Newsweek or Time.”

Press on whether she believes Cybill would have aired for longer had she went home with Moonves, Shepherd said she is certain it would have run for five more seasons.  “We had the best writers in the world, and directors and actors,” she said. “Everybody was brilliant.”

Moonves was fired from CBS following a bombshell New Yorker expose detailing sexual misconduct allegations from 12 women against the network chief. CBS, which hired two outside law firms to probe the explosive allegations, is in deliberations over whether to award a $120 million severance package to Moonves.