- 5 months ago
From offensive hot takes to live broadcasting blunders, these TV personalities lost it all with a single mistake! Join us as we examine the career-ending moments that got famous hosts booted off the air. Our countdown includes Meltem Günay's Starbucks scandal, Bill Grundy's Sex Pistols disaster, Don Lemon's misogynistic remarks and more!
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00:00What I do think is interesting is the show does push these social issues.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo. And today, we're taking a look at 10 instances of TV hosts being sacked
00:11for avoidable mistakes. I know people say I miss you on television. What is your next move?
00:17I'm figuring that out. Meltem Gunai. News anchors drinking hot beverages on air is
00:25nothing scandalous. However, rather than use a channel-branded mug, Turkish broadcaster Meltem
00:32Gunai displayed her Starbucks cup on air as she anchored TGRT Haber in 2023.
00:47At the time, due to allegations the coffee company was supporting Israel during its war,
00:52supporters of Palestine were boycotting the brand.
00:56Before the siege in Gaza, Starbucks was full 24 hours a day. Now, as you can see, there's no one.
01:01Seeing the famous logo on their screen during the news, viewers interpreted Gunai's cup as a subtle
01:07hint of her support of Israel. TGRT responded by firing the award-winning Gunai and the show's
01:14director, stating the newsreader broke its rules by advertising a company on its programming.
01:19Bill Grundy. Due to Queen pulling out at the last minute, in 1976, the Sex Pistols were brought in
01:27as a guest replacement for the UK's Today Show, hosted by Bill Grundy, and was set to go out live.
01:33Just let us see the Sex Pistols in action. He was incredibly hostile to the group,
01:39showing little respect for them and seemingly hitting on the band's female entourage.
01:44In response, the Sex Pistols used insults against Grundy, some of which were curse words that went
01:57against the pre-Watershed rules, as it was broadcast in the early evening. After outrage grew in the
02:03aftermath, Grundy, on top of having his unprofessionalism called out by executives
02:08publicly, he was suspended for two weeks. However, only a couple of months later, Today
02:14was cancelled, and he was unemployed.
02:17I'll be seeing you soon, I hope I'm not seeing you again. From me though, goodnight.
02:21Ron Atkinson. After success as a soccer player and manager, Ron Atkinson made a logical transition
02:28to broadcast pundit, becoming a fixture on ITV Sports.
02:33He was in a job that's a very prestigious job. It doesn't come much better than being
02:38paid maybe a million quid a year to talk about something you love, such as football, and be
02:45flown around the world to do it.
02:46However, that career step was destroyed in 2004. At the time, Atkinson was working on the
02:52coverage for the Champions League semi-final first-leg match between Monaco and Chelsea.
02:58Believing his microphone to be off, the pundit used a racial slur as he criticised Marcel Desailly.
03:05I put the television on and just checked it at the news headlines and it was on there.
03:09While it wasn't heard in the UK, the comments were broadcast in the Middle East. Due to the
03:14massive backlash, Atkinson was forced to resign from ITV. In the years since, he's stated he was
03:21only repeating what other managers had said and was fed up of apologizing.
03:26I mean, alright, I resigned, apologized, I can't do any more than that.
03:31Jimmy Snyder
03:31In 1976, after making his name in sports betting, the man better known as Jimmy the Greek was
03:38hired to work on the NFL Today alongside co-hosts Brent Musburger and Phyllis George.
03:44How about Denver at home now against Houston? Well, Denver's at home and they've got Elway.
03:50We'll go with Denver.
03:51The sometimes rough-speaking Snyder crossed the line with George, but it was other ill-chosen
03:57words that brought his career to an abrupt end in 1988. While being interviewed for WRC-TV
04:03to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, Snyder made several controversial comments.
04:09Their CBS sports commentator, Jimmy the Greek Snyder, gave his impressions of blacks and coaching
04:13in the National Football League. His answers could raise as much controversy as the statements
04:19by former Dodgers executive Al Campanis last April.
04:23One included him claiming that black people were better athletes due to breeding practices
04:28during the slave trade. Yikes. Days later, CBS fired Snyder and he apologized for his words.
04:35In 1991, he sued the broadcaster for his dismissal. However, Snyder lost the case before passing away
04:42in 1996, Don Lemon. In 2006, Lemon made the jump to CNN after being a regional reporter.
04:49I understand that, but you still have not answered my question. Why would we not want a solution to this?
04:55We do want a solution. I want you to answer my question. That happened today. That's what the judge
05:00decided. Please answer my question. He rose up the ranks, eventually getting his own show,
05:05Don Lemon Tonight from 2014 until 2022 and then co-hosting CNN this morning. Trouble started when
05:14Lemon began making several misogynistic comments, such as defending the pay gap between men and women
05:20athletes. Oh, and claiming Nikki Haley could not be in her prime because women are only in their prime
05:25in their 20s and 30s and maybe 40s. Prime for what? It depends. It's just like prime. If you look it up,
05:32it'll say if you look, if you Google when is a woman in her prime, it'll say 20s, 30s and 40s.
05:37Ew. In 2023, reports came out about earlier instances of misogynistic comments and abusive
05:43behavior to colleagues, which the news anchor denied. Regardless, CNN dropped Lemon, forking over
05:50$24.5 million in a separation deal, and Lemon began investigating independent career options.
05:57Connie Chung. One of the most famous news anchors in the U.S. during the 90s, Connie Chung's career
06:04with CBS came screeching to a halt due to not one, but two incidents in 1995. First, she asked then
06:13Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's mother, Kathleen, what her son thought about Hillary Clinton.
06:18And I can't tell you what he said about Hillary. You can't? I can't.
06:23When Kathleen didn't answer, Chung stated it would be kept between them. Instead,
06:29the insult Gingrich whispered about Clinton was clearly heard.
06:33She's out of the kitchen.
06:35Then, when covering the Oklahoma City bombing, Chung was heavily criticized for patronizing
06:41questions toward firefighters. And you believe that by the end of tonight,
06:45you'll be able to save as many people as you can and continue through the night and tomorrow morning.
06:49But we're going to continue our efforts to do out.
06:51As such, she was removed as co-host of CBS Evening News, leading to Chung departing the network
06:58and subsequently joining ABC News.
07:01Alec Baldwin.
07:02In 2013, the first episode of the talk show Up Late with Alec Baldwin aired,
07:07which featured the actor chatting with folks about current events and the arts.
07:12The challenge of making movies. The joy of making a masterpiece. The iconic actors who
07:18starred in one of the greatest movies of all time tonight, Up Late.
07:22However, a month and five episodes later, Baldwin found himself in hot water in New York City.
07:28The actor was recorded getting out of his car and shouting homophobic slurs at a photographer
07:33who got too close to his family. Immediately, Baldwin's show was suspended for two weeks
07:41and he apologized for his words. Then MSNBC canceled his program.
07:47In an interview with Gothamist, Baldwin bizarrely blamed the decision on the fundamentalist wing
07:53of gay advocacy. Bill Maher.
07:55Known for getting himself in hot water on more than one occasion,
07:59no controversy was as catastrophic for Bill Maher as what he said in 2001.
08:05He made this infamous comment less than a week after 9-11.
08:09When hosting Politically Incorrect, as he had for eight years,
08:13one guest was Dinesh D'Souza, who stated that the perpetrators of the September 11th attacks
08:19were warriors. This sparked Maher to agree. Then go a step further by claiming the US
08:25were cowards for attacking with missiles thousands of miles away.
08:29That's cowardly.
08:30Maher's comments resulted in sponsors withdrawing from Politically Incorrect.
08:34The show struggled to keep going with the financial hit, leading to its cancellation in 2002.
08:41Chris Harrison. If there was a Hall of Fame for reality TV presenters,
08:45this host of The Bachelor and its various spinoffs would have been there.
08:50The path we're on right now, we can't continue.
08:55At least until 2021, when Harrison ruined that scenario during an interview with Extra.
09:01Interviewer Rachel Lindsay asked the host about contestant Rachel Kirkconnell,
09:05who was discovered to have liked racially charged social media posts
09:09and attended an Antebellum South Plantation-themed party.
09:12Harrison went on a long-winded rant defending Kirkconnell.
09:15The woke police is out there, and this poor girl Rachel, who has just been thrown to the lions.
09:22Various contestants from his many shows and the fans who watched them condemned Harrison's defense,
09:28who later apologized for his comments. He was suspended by the franchise,
09:32as guest hosts stepped in before he was fully let go.
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09:52Phil Donahue
09:53I think we brought a show to daytime television that they always wanted, and no one gave it to them, and we got lucky.
10:01Perhaps the most influential talk show host of all time, Phil Donahue is known for hosting The Phil Donahue Show,
10:07which ran for 26 years from 1967 to 1996.
10:12The program is widely credited for being the first talk show to engage directly with audiences.
10:17In 2003, his MSNBC show Donahue was canceled.
10:20However, a leaked internal memo suggested that Donahue was fired for his public anti-Iraq war sentiments.
10:27I couldn't get over the unanimity of opinion on cable.
10:31The drum was beating.
10:33Everybody wanted to bomb somebody.
10:35It was stated that Donahue would be a, quote,
10:37difficult public face for NBC in a time of war,
10:40and his program, quote,
10:41a home for the liberal anti-war agenda.
10:44I just felt, you know, what would be wrong with having one show a night,
10:48you know, say, hold it, wait a minute, can we afford this?
10:54Donahue later suggested that his firing came as a result of General Electric,
10:58the defense contractor that owned MSNBC at the time.
11:02You see, GE owns Kitchen Hall of Colorado, which in turn owns JMI of Stanford,
11:07which is a majority shareholder in PokerFastLane.com,
11:09which we see they acquired the Shine Hard Week Company, which owns NBC.
11:13Have you ever caught a live TV flub?
11:15Let us know in the comments.
11:17Nobody's going to call Donahue and tell him to shut up and support the war.
11:21Nobody's that foolish.
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