ViacomCBS may not be done with Nick Cannon after all.
The media conglomerate fired the Wild ‘N Out host and creator back in July in response to anti-Semitic and racist comments he made on his podcast, Cannon’s Class. In the weeks since the firing, which saw Nick keep his gig at FOX’s The Masked Singer but have the launch of his new daytime talk show pushed back a year, Nick has been meeting with Jewish community leaders and advocacy groups, work that Variety reports has caught the attention of his former bosses at ViacomCBS.
“Speaking at a town hall with employees Monday, Chris McCarthy, president of entertainment and youth brands at ViacomCBS, praised work that Cannon claims to have done to make amends for his comments and gain a better understanding of why they were offensive,” Variety reported Thursday. “McCarthy described himself as ‘hopeful’ that the company and Cannon would find a way to rebuild their partnership.”
While it doesn’t appear that ViacomCBS has actually rehired Nick (at press time), it sounds like the company may be willing to consider the idea.
“I don’t know if anyone has been following Nick’s journey since the incident — I have, and the thing that’s unique about Nick — different from many others, is that Nick owned it,” Chris said in Monday’s town hall, per Variety. “He apologized, he said it was wrong. He has since been on a journey of learning and understanding, and more importantly, he is using his voice to help educate other people and is becoming an advocate on this issue.
“This is consistent with the Nick I’ve known for 10 years…I struggle with the fact that Nick, a longtime partner and friend of ours, is on this journey and we’re not part of that journey.”
That ‘journey’ includes an opinion piece titled ‘After Charlottesville, Black and Jewish Americans can’t afford to let our differences divide us,’ that Nick co-authored with Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director for the Anti-Defamation League, to mark the two-year anniversary of the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one counter-protester was killed and 19 others were injured. The piece was posted by The Forward, a national Jewish media outlet, and also shared by Nick on Instagram.
“Change starts by acknowledging the personal responsibility of each of us in perpetuating stereotypes, whether we do so intentionally or not, and accounting for our actions,” the pair wrote. “It continues by advancing an agenda of learning, so we study and come to understand our respective histories so we can be better allies to each other. And it is sustained by accelerating efforts to collaborate, even when it’s uncomfortable, so we can create authentic change that uplifts everyone because we cannot be free until everyone is free.”
Two days earlier, Nick took part in a Q&A with Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious and intergroup relations for the American Jewish Committee, where he discussed his fight against anti-Semitism and all forms of racism and hate, as well as the importance of Black-Jewish relations. His podcast recently featured a two-part interview with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of social action agenda for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and he shared a book report on Simon Wiesenthal‘s ‘The Sunflower’ on Instagram as part of his weekly book report series.
Yesterday during an AJC Advocacy Anywhere event, @NickCannon answered questions about his previous antisemitic statements and spoke about the importance of atonement.
"As our shared faiths know, atoning is something that we go through to make ourselves better."
— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) August 11, 2020
These actions have made a good impression on ViacomCBS, according to Variety.
Nick worked with ViacomCBS brands MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon as an actor, host, producer and executive since the late 1990s. At the time of his firing, he vowed to fight to maintain ownership of Wild ‘N Out, a show Nick created that debuted on MTV back in 2005. Despite that initial statement, earlier this month, members of Nick’s team told TMZ that he was not planning to sue ViacomCBS over ‘Wild ‘N Out.’
Nick is not the only reality star who was “cancelled” this summer who may be making a comeback. Earlier this week, it was reported that former Vanderpump Rules star Stassi Schroeder is in talks with the production company behind the show to discuss future TV projects, just two months after being fired by Bravo for her racially insensitive actions against Faith Stowers and making racially offensive comments.
(Photos: MTV; Twitter; Instagram)
14 Responses
No.
Huge double standard. What about Roseanne? Or any other white person that’s been “cancelled”? How you treat one person, you treat all the other people.
Obviously, Nick DID own the rights to WildNOut, and MTV/Viacom didn’t want to pay him 10 figures for the show. Figured it was cheaper to face some of the backlash and bring him back.
He must have a valid lawsuit against them…that’s the only way they would cave, is if he’s going to take a TON of money from them.
Maybe. I hope they figure something out. Firing him really affects so many other people. I hope he’s learned his lesson
Exactly my thoughts! Somewhere and somehow he has Viacom by the balls… ?♂️
Yesss, please bring Wild’N’Out back, because honeyyyy watching Martin & The Fresh Prince is good and all, but I’m tired of watching it on Both BET && VH1. I go to sleep to it and wake up to it on. Change the channel from one to the other and guess what…it’s STILL on. Lol, at this rate I’m about to know every freaking word to each episode. And I’m so happy that Nick is actually taking steps to educate himself on what he had talked about. That’s something that a lot of other people need to do when they make remarks – go and learn about what they don’t understand. I think that would help some. We really need to teach love and not hate.
You’ve got to be kidding me….. he is a long standing and unrepentant long term racist. Why is that acceptable for him when so many others, much more apologetic and sincere have lost careers. I do not understand this at all.
His ‘apology’ was a classic example of sorry, not sorry.
Exactly. If it were the other way around people would be destroying cities……this is all bullshit distraction fodder anyways to divide the people. The ONLY thing that matters is that we #SaveOurChildren and #StopHumanTrafficking
If the only thing that you got from these protest were that people were destroying cities and the fact that you think that the ONLY thing that matters is saving the children/stopping human trafficking then you really need to educate yourself. I’m going to try to help you some.
1. Yes, saving the children and stopping human trafficking is definitely a huge priority, but bringing about justice due to police brutality is ALSO a huge priority right now. One is not more important than the other, both are EQUALLY important and we can acknowledge and bring attention to both at the same time.
2. If you go out to a protest about saving the children and 1/2 the people end up destroying statues, stores, etc. while the other 1/2 actually protest, would that make you change your mind/stance that saving the children is important or would you contine to protest about it? Do you believe just because a few police officers have done bad things that it means all police officers are bad? Or do you think “yeah okay, these few did this but there are still good police officers out there and that means somethin”.
3. How would you like it if I said that saving the children and stopping human trafficiking is just a distraction from BLM? You’d hate that right? That would sound stupid right?
4. These protests were going on because had George Floyd’s death not been taped then his killers wouldn’t have been arrested – or at least not as quickly as they were. The protest were & are going on because Breonna Taylor (innocent) was killed IN HER HOME while she was SLEEPING and her killers (Police Officers) ARE NOT in custody and it has been months since her death!!!
Try again.
Thanks, we don’t need life lessons from a person devoted to watching 20 year old sit com re-runs
Lmfao are you kidding me? Y’all obviously do. Sit com? What are you talking about? At least come at me with facts if anything. You’re very ignorant and I pray that you educate yourself as well.
Bubbles you are spot on. Some people are just too blind to see when they’re being used.