Former America’s Got Talent (AGT) host Nick Cannon says he’s “standing firmly” with Gabrielle Union after her dismissal from the talent competition series.
In an interview with VLADTV, Cannon was asked about his thoughts on what happened between Union and AGT.
“Gabby’s my girl. I’ve been standing firmly with her and support whatever she needs,” he said. “It’s serious over there.”
“It was some eyeopening events that occurred that really just shed light on some cultural insensitivities, ultimately when it comes to women and when it comes to how the show is ‘produced,'” Cannon said, using air quotes.
Cannon said that after working at AGT “for damn near a decade” he had seen “these things and it’s a giant machine but if you really take the time to step back you’d be like, yo, there’s some things going on that are truly not fair.”
He said the public should be informed “on the way a lot of the contestants are handled, the way a lot of the judges are handled.”
“I just believe it’s an institutional issue, especially when dealing with a company like Fremantle that’s based out of the U.K. and a lot of their producers don’t understand the cultural sensitivities of American culture,” Cannon said.
“When you have a network like NBC that’s only worried about the dollar at the end of the day, all they want to see is that final product and they don’t care how you got to it.
“So, when someone like Gabby, who is well educated, well-versed in speaking her mind, says, ‘Oh, this isn’t right, this shouldn’t be occurring,’ then people are like, ‘Now, she’s angry. Now, she’s a troublemaker.’ No. She’s pointing out things that are true issues that need to be fixed,” Cannon explained.
Cannon was asked about AGT host Terry Crews’ comments about Union’s exit from the show.
During an interview on the third hour of the Today show last week, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star said he never experienced any of the “toxic culture” Union reportedly did while working on the show.
“First of all, I can’t speak for sexism because I’m not a woman, but I can speak on behalf of any racism comments,” he said. “That was never my experience … In fact, it was the most diverse place I have ever been in my 20 years of entertainment.
“I have to say this, too. When you look at what the allegations were about, it was given by an unnamed source. My thing is — it’s funny because I believe you should listen to women, you should always believe women, so I asked my wife what I should do.
“She was like, first of all, if it’s coming from an unnamed source because Gabrielle Union has not made any statement to this day about any of these allegations publicly … if she hasn’t made a statement, why would you?” Crews said.
When he was asked if he had spoken to Union since her departure from AGT, Crews said: “I have not.”
“I haven’t reached out but I have not heard anything,” he said.
Cannon said he “loves Terry Crews” but he believes Crews not standing up for Union is “an institutional thing.”
“I’m not blaming him. We get excited about the occupation. We get excited about getting to work for the man. And we’re going to defend the man because he gave me a job. And ‘I ain’t seen nothing’ becomes the thing. It don’t matter what you saw,” Cannon said before mentioning that he stood by Crews when he accused his agent at the time, Adam Venit, of groping him.
“I stood firmly by him when my former agent accosted him and people thought it was funny. We all thought it was funny, because the situation was so hard to believe that sometimes it can appear to be humorous.
“But the idea was it didn’t matter if it was funny. We stood by you because you said this was an issue. We didn’t see Adam Venit grab your genitalia, but you said it happened so we rocked with you.
“When it comes to Gabby, I don’t care. Whatever she said, if it happened, I’m rocking with you,” Cannon said of his support for the Bring It On actress.
Fremantle and NBC have not responded to Cannon’s comments.