Gayle King Alludes to Past Harassment Allegations With Stephen Colbert: ‘CBS Has Had Issues’

Gayle King appeared on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss the upcoming reboot of This Morning and she briefly alluded to the numerous sexual harassment allegations against her former co-host Charlie Rose and former CBS CEO, Les Moonves: “CBS has had issues. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.”

Appearing alongside her new co-hosts, Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil, King suggested to Colbert that, despite the huge upheaval caused by the revelations of Rose’s years of misconduct and his abrupt departure from the show, CBS This Morning would hold true to its core journalistic beliefs.

“You know when we started this whole process, I said to [CBS News president] Susan Zirinsky, who is our new president, “We’re starting from scratch.” King recalled. “She said: ‘Don’t say that. That is not what’s happening because the bones and the core of the show are there.’ She bitch-slapped me around a couple of times and I said, ‘Got it! Got it.’ But I was worried about starting starting from scratch. When you really think about it, the core of who we are — great storytelling, original reporting, good writing — has not changed. You just have new people sittingat the table. I think that’s a good thing.”

Back in November 2017, Gayle and then co-host Noral O’Donnell — who is now taking over as anchor for CBS Evening News — famously reacted live on-air to a blockbuster report in the Washington Post that eight different women had been sexually harassed by Rose during period from the late 1990s until 2011. Moonves resigned last year after an internal investigation found credible evidence of sexual harassment by him as well as an effort to cover it up by silencing his accuser.

Rose and Moonves became two more high-profile examples —a longside other notable names in the news industry, among them Bill O’Reilly, Matt Lauer, and Mark Halperin — of the far-reaching impact of the #MeToo movement, which aims to expose the widespread, systemic sexual harassment by powerful men.

“I’ve enjoyed a friendship and a partnership with Charlie for the past five years, I’ve held him in such high regard,” King said on the morning after the Post story broke. “That said, Charlie does not get a pass here, does not get a pass from anyone in this room. We are all deeply affected.”

As it happens, Gayle had also appeared on Colbert’s show later that same day in 2017, and was still reeling from the news of Rose’s alleged transgressions. “It’s still very painful,” she told the late-night host at the time.

Watch video above, via CBS.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com