A senior executive at CBS Television Studios was placed on leave Wednesday after a CNN report detailed allegations from several women about sexual and homophobic language in the workplace.
Vincent Favale, the network’s senior vice president of talent, was suspended amid a formal review of his language on Wednesday after CNN contacted the network for the report according to a statement.
{mosads}”The comments reported in this story are offensive and not consistent with the standards we expect from our executives or the culture we want at CBS. The network investigated a complaint for inappropriate language that was received in January 2016, and corrective action was taken,” CBS’s statement to CNN reads.
“However, since concerned voices are speaking up nearly three years later, additional review is warranted. Mr. Favale has been placed on leave while we look into this situation further,” the network added.
Nine current and former CBS employees told CNN in the report that Favale had made inappropriate sexual remarks during rehearsals and meetings of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the network’s flagship late night talk show, including at times in the presence of the network’s Standards and Practices representative.
Human resources employees at CBS were alerted to Favale’s behavior but failed to take meaningful action, the report continues, while Favale allegedly retaliated against some women who came forward with their concerns.
“He definitely knew that I had gone to HR. I told him, ‘People are complaining about you and I let HR know,'” a female former CBS executive told CNN. “He stopped talking to me for long periods of time. Our roles required that we interact … he shut me out of meetings.”
“I went back to HR and complained, but I was told it wasn’t happening and had been addressed with him,” the former executive added.
In a statement to CNN, Favale rejected allegations that he had retaliated against any women who came forward with claims of misconduct, and characterized his off-color remarks as “jokes” that were taken out of context.
“Allegations that I have ever retaliated against anyone in any fashion are 100% false. I have spent my entire career working at comedy shows, where there has always been a wide latitude to make transgressive jokes while preparing the program,” Favale said in a statement.
“While we make a lot of jokes, these jokes attributed to me, whether said in rehearsals or production meetings, are being taken out of context and were not said in the way being presented here,” he added.
His suspension follows the ouster of longtime CBS chairman Les Moonves, who was accused of harassing female employees and coercing one into oral sex. Moonves has also denied the allegations he faces.