don imus

(Update 4/12/07 5:00 PM: CBS Radio has also fired Don Imus. Details are here.)

Just heard a statement read on tonight's NBC Nightly News that MSNBC has decided to stop simulcasting Don Imus' WFAN radio show, Imus in the Morning, starting immediately. They had previously announced that they were going along with CBS Radio's two-week suspension of the talk show host, but after re-evaluating what they called an "ongoing review process" and conducting "many conversations with our own employees," NBC News decided to end the simulcast permanently. The entire press statement is after the jump.

Don Imus is obviously old school in his thoughts and prejudices. If he were more in tune with popular culture and current social mores, he might have realized that you can only get away with making disparaging remarks about one person's hair. And that is Sanjaya Malakar.

It would have yielded Imus equal amounts of publicity for his show and his name would not be on the tip of Al Sharpton's tongue. He could have also been a foil for the tone-deaf Jennifer Lopez, who couldn't get enough of her Spanish-singing crooner, Sanjaya, on American Idol last night.

The father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is... YOU! Or me! Or Larry Birkhead. Jon Stewart briefly talked about the public's reaction to the new set. I thought the installation of Brian Williams' giant head was a nice touch. Adds a little extra pizzazz to the set, no? But really, I'm always glad to see Williams when he appears on The Daily Show, especially when it's a brief, pointless cameo such as this. Williams is such a good sport.

Our corporate siblings at AOL have a fun interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfus posted to their "TV Tattler" site. My colleague Geoff Bennett asks her some questions about her Emmy win for Old Christine -- she took the statuette to work the next day and placed it on the craft services table -- casting Blair Underwood as a love interest, and what it's like to play a working mother while being one herself.

But the question that got my attention was when Geoff asked Julia about her reaction to the Michael Richards incident. While she wouldn't condemn her friend and Seinfeld co-star, Julia was pretty truthful about how she felt at the time it happened: "At first I thought someone was kidding. I couldn't believe it. The whole thing was just so profoundly sad and heart-breaking. I was just really devastated by it."

Talk show host Don Imus has been suspended from his show by both CBS Radio and MSNBC, which telecasts his radio show every morning. The suspension is for two weeks but doesn't start until next Monday.

This is because Imus referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Imus went on Al Sharpton's radio show on Monday and, as Howard Stern pointed out today, probably made things worse by the apology he made there and other comments he made.

MSNBC says that any "any future relationship with Imus is contingent on his ability to live up to his word." I wonder why the suspension doesn't start til next Monday. Do they want the ratings bump the controversy is going to create? Will Imus talk about it on his show the next four days? CNN has certainly been talking about it all day.

TV Week is reporting that CNN will make an official annoucement today about the fate of their morning show American Morning and the show's anchors, Miles O'Brien and Soledad O'Brien (from now on referred to as "The O'Briens.")

The two anchors are leaving the CNN program (ratings are down) and they are expected to be replaced by John Roberts and Kiran Chetry. If you're not sure about that name, Kiran Chetry is a woman who used to be on FOX News Channel's Fox & Friends. John Roberts came over to CNN last year and is, of course, a man.