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NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell ousted over ‘inappropriate
relationship’ with CNBC anchor Hadley Gamble
By Alexandra Steigrad and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
April 23, 2023 4:35pm Updated
NYPost
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell was ousted after admitting “an inappropriate relationship” with a CNBC anchor at the media giant, parent company Comcast said Sunday.
The alleged affair was exposed during an investigation by an outside counsel after a complaint against him, according to sources.
“Today is my last day as CEO of NBCUniversal,” Shell said in a statement Sunday. “I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret.
“I’m truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down,” the statement said. “They are the most talented people in the business and the opportunity to work with them the last 10 years has been a privilege.”
The woman Shell had an affair with was identified by Deadline.com as anchor and senior international correspondent Hadley Gamble. The outlet said the pair started a relationship 11 years ago and continued sporadically for years.
Shell, who is married, has been with the company for a total of two decades.
He ran the media giant’s entertainment wing and left with Comcast’s Peacock streaming service struggling to keep up with competitors, the Wall Street Journal said.
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell announced Sunday he is stepping down after two decades with the company, admitting that he had “an inappropriate relationship” with a woman in the company.
No replacement has been named.
REUTERS
Peacock clocked more than 20 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter but still lost nearly $1 billion, the newspaper said.
Comcast did not reveal details of Shell’s relationship with the staffer, or identify her role in the company.
Gamble previously made news when she was accused by Russian state media of acting like a “sexual object” to distract Russian President Vladimir Putin, with state outlets even suggesting she was part of a US “special operation.”
Was she sleeping with Shell because he's so handsome?
Shell was reportedly having an affair with anchor and senior international correspondent Hadley Gamble.
Getty Images
The allegations came after she interviewed Putin at a Russian Energy Week panel in Moscow in October 2021. Vladimir Soloviev told his state radio show back then that Gamble distracted Putin with her “sex appeal,” while propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov accused the veteran journalist of having “behaved boldly, openly positioning herself as a sexual object,” according to a translation from a 2021 Daily Beast report.
Olga Skabeeva insisted Gamble must be part of a US “special operation” to target Putin, the outlet reported.
Before taking over as CEO in January 2020, Shell served as chairman of NBCUniversal’s Film and Entertainment, where he was charged with creating content and overseeing programming at various operations. That included film and network businesses, such as the company’s Spanish-language Telemundo network.
In May 2020, Shell cut senior management salaries by 20% and rolled back pay for employees making more than $100,000 a year by 3% to stave off financial losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shell rose to the top job at NBCUniversal after former CEO Steve Burke resigned in December 2019. Under Burke, revenue rose to nearly $35.9 billion in 2018, up from almost $31.4 billion in 2016, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
A replacement for Shell as CEO has not been named.
Mike Cavanagh, Comcast’s president, will take over Shell’s duties until a replacement is named, with NBCUniversal’s TV and streaming head, Mark Lazarus, and theatrical operations boss, Donna Langley, reporting directly to Cavanagh during the transition.
Shell is just the latest media industry exec to leave their post amid scandal — among them NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer, who resigned after revealing that he was being threatened with extortion by a former paramour.
Last year, CNN president Jeff Zucker suddenly quit after admitting a relationship with another executive at the news network — which came to light during a probe into former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.
And former CBS boss Les Moonves resigned in 2018 after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct were made public.
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Misogynist Don Lemon fired from CNN, ‘stunned’ by how he found out
By Alexandra Steigrad, NYPost
April 24, 2023 12:35pm Updated
Don Lemon, the controversial anchor of “CNN This Morning,” has been fired from CNN — an abrupt ouster that follows a slew of scandals for the gaffe-prone anchor.
In a fiery tweet on Monday, Lemon claimed to have been blindsided by the news, saying he was informed that CNN fired him via his agent, UTA’s Jay Sures.
“I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned after 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon wrote.
“At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network. It is clear that there are some larger issues at play.”
Lemon’s fiery tweet drew a pointed rebuttal from CNN on Twitter early Monday afternoon.
“Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate,” CNN tweeted. “He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”
Inside CNN, staffers are said to be “ecstatic” that Lemon is no longer at the network, as he had become a major distraction.
Don Lemon waves goodbye at the end of his CNN show on Monday, April 24, 2023.
CNN
Obviously, his female co-anchors are really broke-up about him leaving
Although sources said there was not a single incident that caused CNN and Lemon to part ways. CNN management saw that Lemon’s outbursts and bad behavior were not “getting better” and were part of a “pattern,” making it clear that the situation was no longer tenable.
Going forward, the plan is for Collins and Harlow to continue co-anchoring the ratings-challenged morning show in order to “stabilize things,” sources said. One source who knows both hosts said the duo have a “great relationship” and enjoy working together, so there’s hope that the transition is seamless.
CNN had been testing Collins out in primetime, and management had been eyeing her for an anchor spot, but that appears to be on hold for the time being, the sources said.
CNN CEO Chris Licht circulated the news — which appeared to have surprised Lemon and staffers alike, following the struggling morning show’s Monday broadcast — in a memo to staffers.
“CNN and Don have parted ways,” Licht said. “Don will forever be part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years. We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavors.”
The controversies leading up to Don Lemon’s CNN firing >
Don Lemon is no stranger to controversy.
The now ex-CNN anchor was in hot water multiple times in the lead-up to Monday’s shock firing — from his infamous Nikki Haley “past her prime” remark to a screaming match with a female co-host and alleged “diva” behavior.
CNN hasn’t provided a public explanation for Lemon’s ouster after 17 years with the cable news network. But Lemon took to Twitter to insist that he had been blindsided by the news after hosting “CNN This Morning” earlier in the day.
Below are just a few of Lemon’s recent controversies.
Beef with his co-host
In December last year, Lemon is said to have “screamed” at his co-anchor, Kaitlan Collins, after an on-air segment, sources told The Post at the time.
When the cameras stopped rolling after the Dec. 8 show, he allegedly approached Collins and unleashed on her in front of staffers for supposedly “interrupting” him on air.
“Don screamed at Kaitlan, who was visibly upset and ran out of the studio,” one source said.
In the aftermath, a source said: “At this point, Kaitlan wants to be on set with Don as little as possible … It’s messy.”
Soccer spat
Just weeks before his alleged screaming match, Lemon clashed with his two female co-hosts over on-air remarks he made about women’s soccer.
Lemon got into an awkward dispute with both Collins and Harlow after he suggested the US men’s soccer team should get paid more than the women’s side.
“The men’s team makes more money. If they make more money, then they should get more money,” Lemon said.
“The men’s team makes more money because people are more interested in the men.”
Diva-like behavior
A damning Variety magazine report published earlier this month alleged Lemon has a long history of sexist and “diva-like behavior.”
The report cited roughly a dozen former CNN staffers who listed several alleged instances of misogynistic behavior.
Separately, The Post has learned that Lemon has tapped former CNN flack Allison Gollust to advise him during his acrimonious split with CNN.
Gollust is former CNN CEO Jeff Zucker’s girlfriend. Zucker and Gollust were both ousted from the network after their affair came to light in 2022.
“It’s a power move,” one media insider said of Lemon’s decision to work with Gollust. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether CNN will continue paying Lemon.
A source close to Lemon said that the network is expected to continue to pay him what he was owed on his contract.
Lemon signed a new deal with CNN last September when his primetime show was cancelled and he was moved to co-anchor the relaunched morning show. CNN deals tend to be three to four years.
The Post reached out to Gollust for comment on whether Lemon was still being paid by CNN. She did not comment.
The anchor had been in hot water for months.
Earlier this month, Licht admitted that the former primetime star has been a “lightning rod” for controversy — days after a damning report in Variety alleged years of “diva-like” and misogynistic behavior by Lemon.
The magazine reported that Lemon sent threatening text messages from an anonymous number to co-anchor Kyra Phillips because he was angered that she was chosen to cover the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq.
A spokesperson for Lemon told The Post that he never sent the text.
Lemon is also alleged to have once remarked to other staffers that he did not consider Soledad O’Brien authentically black, according to Variety.
At the time, a CNN spokesperson told The Post, “Don denies making any related remark in a derogatory way.”
In February, Lemon also was under fire after saying on air that 51-year-old GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley was not “in her prime.”
The Post also reported that he yelled at co-anchor Kaitlan Collins after a tense on-air segment in December.
On Friday, The Post reported that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to be interviewed by the anchor.
According to insiders, it wasn’t just Jean-Pierre who was turned off by Lemon’s behavior: Advertisers were also concerned and were pulling out of spending on the show, which launched in November.
Inside the network, Licht had had talks with Sures and Lemon about the show not being a great fit for the embattled anchor.
The show failed to gain ratings traction, and each scandal with Lemon had caused another round of blowback from staffers, a source said.
Still, the split had turned acrimonious when Lemon tweeted the news ahead of CNN’s statement on Monday.
The network had planned to continue paying Lemon even if he was off the air, but the anchor tweeted out that he had been fired.
CNN did not comment.
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