The hosts of ‘Access Hollywood.’
Credit: NBCUniversal Syndication Studios
Audiences are about to have a little less access to Hollywood.
After 30 seasons, Access Hollywood has been canceled by NBCUniversal. The popular daily entertainment news program will continue production through the summer, before closing up shop.
Launched in 1996, Access Hollywood covered the latest news in the entertainment industry and featured interviews with the industry’s biggest stars. Mario Lopez, Kit Hoover, Scott Evans, and Zuri Hall serve as the current hosts of the show, but past faces of the program include Billy Bush, Maria Menounos, Natalie Morales, Pat O’Brien, and Jeff Probst.
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The cancellation comes nearly a decade after the show’s brush with political infamy. In October 2016, The Washington Post published footage of a 2005 conversation between Bush and Donald Trump — the Republican presidential candidate at the time of the Post’s report — in which Trump spoke of grabbing women by the genitals.
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump could be heard saying in the video.
Bush was fired from Access Hollywood following the incident. Trump went on to win the presidential election that November.
Last July, Bush claimed that he flagged Trump’s lewd comments to producers “the day of filming,” alleging that NBC sat on the footage to protect Trump, then the host of the network’s reality franchise The Apprentice.
“Had that tape leaked out when it actually occurred in 2005, I would’ve been fired for an entirely different reason; killing [NBC’s] cash cow,” Bush said in an interview on Literally! With Rob Lowe. “Trump was a protected, revered source. He was a hundred million dollars in profit for NBC. He was the king of the ratings.”
Karamo Brown on ‘Karamo’; Steve Wilkos on ‘The Steve Wilkos Show.’
Credit: NBCUniversal; Heidi Gutman/NBC
NBCUniversal has also pulled the plug on a pair of daytime talk shows: Karamo and The Steve Wilkos Show. Hosted by Queer Eye alum Karamo Brown, Karamo ran for four seasons, while the Jerry Springer spinoff The Steve Wilkos Show made it to 19. Both have completed production, with new episodes set to run in the coming months.
All three shows are ending while studios reassess their daytime syndication strategy. Last month, it was announced that NBCUniversal’s Kelly Clarkson Show is set to conclude later this year.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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