Nick Cannon has announced that he will no longer be the host of the long running reality competition show America's Got Talent.
Cannon broke the news via his social media accounts on Monday and explained that the decision stems from him being informed that NBC executives intended to terminate him over a racial joke he made on a comedy special which aired on Showtime over the weekend.
"I write this from a deeply saddened and dolorous mindset. After days of deliberating over some extremely disappointing news that I was being threatened with termination by Executives because of a comedy special that was only intended to bring communities closer together, I was to be punished for a joke," Cannon wrote in a very lengthy post.
He went onto say, "Not to get too detailed but this isn't the first time executives have attempted to 'put me in my place' for so called unruly actions. I will not stand for it. My moral principles will easily walk away from the millions of dollars they hang over my head. It's never been about the money for me, what is difficult to walk away from is the fans, the people who love me on the show. This hurts tremendously. I felt like I was apart of the fabric of our great nation every summer, representing every culture, age, gender, and demographic. Now for the rug to be pulled from underneath me and to be publicly reprimanded and ridiculed over a joke about my own race is completely wrong and I have to do something about it."
The joke Cannon is referring to that he was apparently going to be let go for was made during the Showtime special when he said, “Sometimes I wish I could say the stuff I really want to say. Y’all see my face on America’s Got Talent? Like, this next crazy motherf**ker coming to the stage gonna be juggling blindfolded with knives and s**t, so ni**as be careful! But I can’t say that. I can’t talk like that. That would mess up the white money.”
He summed up his post by wishing NBC and AGT luck in the future and ended with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King which read: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."
Cannon hosted the show since 2009. You can read his entire statement below.