Nick Cannon Demands Ownership of 'Wild 'n Out' After Getting Fired From Viacom

Nick Cannon was fired by Viacom after he made anti-Semitic comments during a podcast discussion with Professor Griff.

It has been a turbulent week for Nick Cannon.

On Tuesday night (July 14) Viacom announced that it was ending their 20-year relationship with Nick Cannon after ant-Semitic views the longtime Wild 'n Out star displayed on a podcast. 

Early on Wednesday morning, Cannon posted a lengthy response on his Facebook called "Truth and Reconciliation." The post detailed his long history with Viacom — starting out as a child star on Nickelodeon's All That — before detailing his claims against Viacom and then making demands. 

He began the post by writing:

"I am deeply saddened in a moment so close to reconciliation that the powers that be, misused an important moment for us to all grow closer together and learn more about one another. , the moment was stolen and hijacked [sic] to make an example of an outspoken black man. I will not be bullied, silenced, or continuously oppressed by any organization, group, or corporation. I am disappointed that Viacom does not understand or respect the power of the black community."

In the letter, Cannon claims that he tried to reach out to out to ViacomCBS chair Shari Redstone to apologize but didn't get a response. He also said that the company banned advertisements that supported George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

He capped the letter by demanding that Viacom give him ownership of his Wild 'n Out brand, which has been an MTV staple for 15 years, and that Viacom apologies. 

If I have furthered the hate speech, I wholeheartedly apologize. But now I am the one making demands. I demand full ownership of my billion dollar Wild ‘N Out brand that I created, and they will continue to misuse and destroy without my leadership! I demand that the hate and back door bullying cease and while we are at it, now that the truth is out, I demand the Apology!

The podcast in question was Cannon's Youtube podcast Cannon’s Class. The episode featured Cannon interviewing controversial figure Professor Griff, who talked about being dismissed from Public Enemy in 1989 for anti-Semitic comments. (In an interview with the Washington Times, Griff said Jews were responsible for “the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe.”)

In the podcast interview, Griff had little remorse about what he said, instead saying, “I’m hated now because I told the truth.” Cannon responded by saying, “You’re speaking facts...There’s no reason to be scared of anything when you’re speaking the truth.”

In the interview, which lasted 90 minutes, Cannon supported Louis Farhkan and spread conspiracy theories around the Rothschild family. He said:

“I find myself wanting to debate this idea and it gets real wishy and washy and unclear for me when we give so much power to the ‘theys,’ and ‘theys’ then turn into Illuminati, the Zionists, the Rothchilds."

He also supported Griff's comments about how Black people can't be anti-Semitic because they are Semitic people by definition:

“You can’t be anti-Semitic when we are the Semitic people...That’s our birthright. So if that’s truly our birthright, there’s no hate involved.”

The podcast was filmed last year and aired two weeks ago. After the interview started to gather some attention, Cannon put out a statement on Twitter, where he did not apologize for his comments.

The next day Viacom released its own. They formally ended their relationship with Cannon, saying:

“We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast Cannon’s Class on YouTube, which promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories...While we support ongoing education and dialogue in the fight against bigotry, we are deeply troubled that Nick has failed to acknowledge or apologize for perpetuating anti-Semitism, and we are terminating our relationship with him.”

The fate of Wild 'n Out seems to be undetermined. The show has gone on for 15 years and helped launch the careers of comedians like Kevin Hart, Katt Williams, Affion Crockett, and more.

A user on social media noticed that Viacom already started to remove repeat episodes of Wild 'n Out from its schedule.

Cannon is also the host and executive producer of Fox' The Masked Singer. Fox has not given a statement about Cannon yet.

This seems very bad for Cannon but there already is one network willing to work with him again. On Wednesday afternoon, Diddy tweeted in support of Nick Cannon, urging him to "come home" to Revolt, Diddy's network that is "truly Black owned."