Nick Cannon will continue to be the host of Fox’s The Masked Singer. Fox has finally issued a statement and the network is backing Cannon. This statement was released shortly after Cannon shared an apology of his own. Since news about ViacomCBS firing Nick Cannon over his anti-Semitic podcast came in on Wednesday, viewers of Fox’s The Masked Singer have wondered if the network would follow in MTV’s footsteps.

In a now-deleted hour-long episode of his podcast “Cannon Class”, which was recorded on June 30, 2020, Nick spoke about race and racism with Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin. This discussion prompted his firing. Formerly hailing from the rap group Public Enemy, Griffin had asserted that Jews are “wicked” and said, “I’m hated now because I told the truth,” Griffin left Public Enemy in 1989 upon making the comment. Cannon agreed with him, saying that he was speaking the truth. Cannon is an African-American who declared that Semitic people are “Black people”. He also added that a person can’t be anti-Semitic while being one of the Semitic people. Cannon also argued that lighter-skinned people — “Jewish people, white people, Europeans” — “are a little less” and have a “deficiency” that historically caused them to act out of fear… and commit acts of violence to survive. He went on to discuss anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. His hurtful comments were condemned by The Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish leaders Nick’s statements on the podcast created an uproar. Soon after, he was fired by ViacomCBS. Cannon has had a relationship with Viacom since he was an actor on Nickelodeon in the ’90s. That relationship moved into the 2000s with the improv show Wild ‘N Out.

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After Cannon was let go from ViacomCBS on July 14, in spite of starting his career with the company, there was still no word from Fox. Cannon hosts the hit reality competition series, The Masked Singer, for Fox. After speculation about whether or not the network would turn a blind eye to the controversy, Fox released a statement obtained by EW on Wednesday, July 15: “When we were made aware of Nick Cannon’s interview with Richard Griffin on YouTube, we immediately began a dialogue with Nick. He is clear and remorseful that his words were wrong and lacked both understanding and context, and inadvertently promoted hate. This was important for us to observe. Nick has sincerely apologized and quickly taken steps to educate himself and make amends. On that basis and given a belief that this moment calls for dialogue, we will move forward with Nick and help him advance this important conversation, broadly. Fox condemns all forms of hate directed toward any community and we will combat bigotry of any kind.” You can read Nick Cannon’s apology below:

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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.

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The third season finale of The Masked Singer drew a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49 and 8.72 million viewers for Fox, its best showing since a 2.4 in the demo and 8.9 million viewers April 1, thus making The Masked Singer the highest-rated entertainment program in numerous key demographics. It also became the first unscripted series to rank number one in the genre in its first season since Joe Millionaire in 2003. A fourth season has already been announced, with Cannon back to fronting the “whosungit” show as the host. He’ll be alongside panelists Ken Jeong, Nicole Scherzinger, Robin Thicke, and Jenny McCarthy.

While there’s no official premiere date yet, the show is still in its pre-production stage. What remains to be seen is how both the network and  Nick Cannon manage to stay afloat at The Masked Singer even though “cancel culture” is rampant…interestingly enough, Cannon wants to shift “cancel culture” to “counsel culture“, according to Variety.

Source: EW Cannon Class Twitter Instagram

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Saylee Padwal
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Saylee Padwal is a Features and News Writer for Screen Rant where she covers Reality TV. Enjoys spending her spare time binging her favorite horror films, crime docs, and exploring local coffee shops.

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