Samantha Bee ended her “Full Frontal” monologue Wednesday night by invoking “CSI: Miami” to criticize how CBS has responded to accusations of sexual misconduct against its CEO, Les Moonves.
“In the words of one of the immortal characters he helped create: ‘It’s time for this Moonves to be eclipsed’,” Bee said at the end of her monologue as she put on a pair of sunglasses. The gag was a reference to David Caruso’s “CSI: Miami” character, Horatio Caine, who routinely puts on sunglasses to emphasize a pun related to the murder case he’s currently investigating.
Last week, Moonves was accused of sexually harassing six women in a New Yorker article by investigative journalist Ronan Farrow. Notably, two of the women said Moonves physically intimidated them or threatened their careers in order to keep them quiet. Moonves has denied the accusations, and CBS is currently conducting an investigation.
“CBS President Les Moonves is in deep trouble for sexually harassing female colleagues – or maybe he’s not in trouble at all,” Bee said at the start of her Moonves discussion. She then queued a video clip detailing the accusations that ended with the note that Moonves still holds his job.
“Yes, who could ever bear to get rid of the creative mastermind who developed ‘Hawaii Five-O’ and ‘Hawaii Five-O: Miami’?” Bee joked as she implied that CBS was covering for Moonves.
Of course, though, even if Moonves was a talented creator, Bee said, “no cop procedural, no matter how well-crafted and original, is worth ending a woman’s career to shut her up.”
At the end, right after her Horatio Caine joke, “Full Frontal” put down the perfect “CSI” punctuation: The “Yeah!” clip from The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” that served as the “Miami” theme song and always kicked in right as Caine made his pun.