CBS viewers left shocked by risqué moment between Julie Chen Moonves and Big Brother contestant - following husband's sex scandal
The moment also triggered renewed scrutiny over her embattled legacy as the wife of disgraced former CBS chief Les Moonves, 75.
The shocking exchange unfolded during just before a live vote and eviction on the reality TV show.
It saw Chen Moonves check in with the house guests including black contestant Will Williams, a 50-year-old retired Army captain, who wanted to say hi to his wife on air.
'Shout out to my family and shout out to my babe and my chocolate drop, Gwen,' Will said.
Chen Moonves, 55, smiling playfully, leaned into the moment - and then crossed a line that many viewers couldn't believe they'd just heard.
'Will, am I your lemon drop then?', Chen Moonves asked without missing a beat.
The comment immediately set off pandemonium inside the Big Brother house.
Williams stood up in shock while the gathered house guests all erupted with laughter.
Chen Moonves appeared to recoil in embarrassment realizing what she'd just said.
'I'm just kidding. Settle down,' she said moments later, attempting to regain control as the contestants continued to howl with laughter. 'Tell your wife it was a joke! Now we have business…'
Viewers on social media exploded with many stunned that Chen Moonves would have make such a remark to a married contestant on national television.
Others questioned the racial implications of the 'lemon drop' comment, especially in the context of her husband's very public fall from grace following multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
'She said that on national TV!!! Someone's about to get real offended,' one user wrote on TikTok.
'The immediate regret in her voice and trying to walk it back - this is incredible,' another posted to X.
'My. Jaw. Dropped. It was so good,' wrote a third.
'Is this literally not racist cause lemon drops are yellow and…' a fourth asked bluntly.
The retired Army Captain initially seemed to laugh off the comment made by Chen Moonves
The viral moment, though just seconds long, immediately brought renewed attention to Chen Moonves's controversial past - and the scandal that forced her husband out of the network she still represents and broadcasts.
Although she has attempted to distance herself from her husband's public disgrace, Chen Moonves remains inseparable in the public imagination from Les Moonves, the disgraced former CEO and chairman of CBS Corporation who was forced out in 2018, after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct spanning three decades.
Moonves, once one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood, allegedly subjected women to groping, forced oral sex, and retaliation - charges he vehemently denies.
At the time, Chen Moonves publicly backed her husband and even adopted her full married name - Julie Chen Moonves - on-air, in a move widely viewed as a symbolic declaration of loyalty while the CBS network distanced itself from the scandal.
Behind the scenes, the fallout was personal with Chen Moonves ousted from The Talk chat show, a position she later said she didn't leave voluntarily.
'That was a hard time,' Chen told ABC News. 'I felt stabbed in the back. I was, you know? I don't know if I could've reconciled if I didn't have God in my life.'
Les Moonves, the disgraced former CEO and chairman of CBS Corporation was forced out in 2018 after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct spanning three decades
Chen Moonves has since turned to religion, publishing an audio memoir titled But First, God and leaning heavily into her faith as a way to reframe her public identity.
'Julie Chen before she found God was a self-absorbed, career-minded, vain, gossipy, fun to be with, but probably kind of a shallow person,' she confessed.
'Julie Chen Moonves, who now knows the Lord, is someone who wants to help others, who wants to look at everyone with a soft heart.'
But Thursday night's lemon-drop flirtation seemed to break from that rebranded image - and reignited questions about her role as a public figure on a major network.
Despite his ouster and years of legal wrangling, Moonves and CBS remain linked.
In 2021, he gave up a $120 million severance package in a settlement with ViacomCBS. The company then declared the matter 'resolved.'
Married in 2004, Julie and Les have remained together, raising their son Charlie.
'We leaned on each other and we knew that nothing could break us,' Chen Moonves told People while promoting her memoir last year. 'It was our love and our foundation that got us through.'
Still, critics say Chen Moonves presence on Big Brother continues to raise ethical questions for CBS.
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