Steve Harvey opens up about why his shows were cancelled on NBC.
Appearing on the latest episode of Vault Empowers Talks with his daughter Brandi, Harvey addressed what went down.
“Here’s what really happened. When they came to me with Celebrity Family Feud, I said, ‘Well, man, let’s just go to NBC.’ Because NBC, I got Little Big Shots over here, let’s give it to them first. So the president at that time, he said, ‘No, we don’t want that. That will never work.’ Okay cool, went over to ABC, and ABC bought it.
“So they [ABC] put us on Sunday night. Well, that Sunday night started crushing NBC’s Sunday night lineup,” Harvey explained. “So Paul Telegdy [former Chairman of NBC Entertainment] came back to me and said, ‘Hey man, we made a mistake. Can you switch this show from ABC to NBC?’ I said, ‘No man, that ain’t right.’ I said, ‘They believed in it, and gave me a crack. I’m gonna stay with them.’ He said, ‘We’ll pay you whatever you’re making.’ I said, ‘No.’ And that moment right there, I saw in his eyes, he hated me. That white man could not believe I told him no.”
HARVEY’S BATTLE WITH NBC
Harvey noted that the cancellation notices arrived shortly after he noticed an unusual silence from NBC—getting neither a birthday present nor a Christmas gift from the network.
“In May they made the announcement, and he said out of his mouth, ‘I’ll show him. I’ll take his whole TV career,” Harvey said. “So he cancelled the talk show and Little Big Shots.”
According to Eur Web, a major 2017 restructuring of Steve gave Harvey greater creative control while stripping NBCUniversal of its ownership stake. This move paved the way for NBC-owned stations to replace the talk show with The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2019.
GABRIELLE UNION’S LAWSUIT AGAINST TELEGDY
This isn’t the first time Telegdy has been accused of racial discrimination. In June 2020, Gabrielle Union filed a discrimination and harassment complaint against NBCUniversal and America’s Got Talent producers. She accused Paul Telegdy of trying to intimidate and silence her after she reported a toxic, racist work environment on the show.