Donald Trump is not backing down from his controversial remarks on illegal Mexican immigrants, and that has caused NBC to join Univision in backing away from Donald Trump.
Univision decided to drop its broadcast of Miss Universe Pageant, and now NBCUniversal has followed suit.
NBC also revealed that its “Apprentice” franchise would be moving forward without Trump.
It’s a bit more complicated for NBC, since it co-owns Miss Universe with Trump.
NBC stated, “At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values. Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump. To that end, the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which are part of a joint venture between NBC and Trump, will no longer air on NBC. In addition, as Mr. Trump has already indicated, he will not be participating in The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC. Celebrity Apprentice is licensed from Mark Burnett’s United Artists Media Group and that relationship will continue.”
Trump said at a press conference that he had a great relationship with NBC, and said that NBC would have preferred having him back for the next season of Celebrity Apprentice. However, he realized he and NBC are not going to see eye to eye on the immigration issue.
RBR+TVBR observation: There would have been problems for NBC in regard to the Trump candidacy if he ran a silent campaign. His mere presence on the network’s airspace raised equal time questions before he ever opened his mouth.
We of course proceeded from there to the chemically unstable brew that can result when politics and entertainment are mixed.
The goal of a mass media entertainment company is to attract the biggest audience it can, and to connect advertisers with them. It is not in the interest of either to exclude anybody based on their political preferences.
So it looks like the NBC will be looking for a reality host. Perhaps it’s time to make sure your demo tapes and resume are in proper order.
