Nick Cannon's Career in Limbo Over Anti-Semitic Remarks

The fallout from anti-Semitic remarks Nick Cannon made recently continues. His Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out improv series was effectively cancelled last week. Now there's news that a planned talk show starring Cannon will not debut later this year as scheduled. So far, only Fox is standing by Cannon by going ahead with The Masked Singer, which Cannon hosts. Read on for details.

Via The Hollywood Reporter.

A syndicated daytime show hosted by Nick Cannon won't launch in the fall, in the latest fallout from anti-Semitic remarks he made on his podcast.

Cannon, who also hosts Fox's The Masked Singer, was set to host and executive produce an eponymous show from Lionsgate's Debmar-Mercury. The show was cleared in more than 90 percent of the country, including all of the 20 biggest markets, with Fox-owned stations as the lead group. It was also set to air on stations owned by CBS, Sinclair, Nexstar, Tegna and Cox, among other station owners.

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A post shared by NICK CANNON (@nickcannon) on Jul 16, 2020 at 11:08pm PDT

Lionsgate says it's standing by Cannon, but will hold off on the daytime show for a year.

"The Nick Cannon talk show will not debut this year. After conversations with Nick, we do believe that his public comments don’t reflect his true feelings and his apology is heartfelt and sincere," Lionsgate and Debmar-Mercury said in a statement. "We want to continue the healing process as he meets with leaders of the Jewish community and engages in a dialogue with our distribution partners to hear their views.  We are standing by Nick in our hope that by fall 2021 he will be able to use his extraordinary talent and platform to entertain, enlighten and unite his audience on the Nick Cannon talk show.

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First and foremost I extend my deepest and most sincere apologies to my Jewish sisters and brothers for the hurtful and divisive words that came out of my mouth during my interview with Richard Griffin. They reinforced the worst stereotypes of a proud and magnificent people and I feel ashamed of the uninformed and naïve place that these words came from. The video of this interview has since been removed. While the Jewish experience encompasses more than 5,000 years and there is so much I have yet to learn, I have had at least a minor history lesson over the past few days and to say that it is eye-opening would be a vast understatement. I want to express my gratitude to the Rabbis, community leaders and institutions who reached out to me to help enlighten me, instead of chastising me. I want to assure my Jewish friends, new and old, that this is only the beginning of my education—I am committed to deeper connections, more profound learning and strengthening the bond between our two cultures today and every day going forward.

A post shared by NICK CANNON (@nickcannon) on Jul 16, 2020 at 9:35am PDT

"Lionsgate and Debmar-Mercury condemn anti-Semitism, racism and hate speech. It runs counter to everything we stand for."

During a June 30 edition of his podcast, Cannon's Class, Cannon spoke with Richard Griffin, aka Professor Griff, a former member of rap group Public Enemy. Cannon called Black people "the true Hebrews" and discussed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories with Griffin, who was pushed out of Public Enemy in the late 1980s after making homophobic and anti-Semitic comments in media interviews.

"It's never hate speech. You can't be anti-Semitic when we are the Semitic people, when we are the same people who they want to be," said Cannon. "That's our birthright. We are the true Hebrews."

Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.

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