Top 30 TV Hosts Who DESTROYED Their Careers on Air

Even without formal training in meteorology, Antoine became a fixture in local US weather reporting for decades. He was known for meshing entertainment into his reports. However, in 1976, Antoine’s storied career came crashing down. While working for WABC, he made a highly insensitive joke about assault right after a harrowing news story about a child being assaulted aired. Soon, the station was flooded with complaints from viewers, and WABC suspended Antoine. Although many people called for his firing, the network eventually brought him back in a non-TV role. However, when Antoine’s contract expired in 1977, WABC chose not to renew it. He later found brief work at a different station, before passing away in 1983.

After becoming the first Greek player in the MLB, Al Campanis went on to serve as the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers for nearly two decades. In 1987, he appeared on “Nightline” for an episode celebrating Jackie Robinson, a friend of his. However, instead of being a touching tribute, the segment became infamous for Campanis uttering various racist statements. When asked by host Ted Koppel why there was a lack of black managers and general managers in baseball, Campanis stated they didn’t have the “necessities” for those roles. Yikes. He also claimed black people aren’t good swimmers due to a lack of buoyancy. The outrage caused him to be fired as general manager two days later.

With a long career as a footballer, and then as a manager for teams like Manchester United and West Brom, Ron Atkinson seemed like a good choice to be a pundit for the UK’s ITV. But no. In 2004, while covering a Champions League match, Atkinson, believing his microphone was off, heavily criticized Chelsea player Marcel Desailly and used a racial slur. Unfortunately for “Big Ron,” his words were broadcast in other countries in the Middle East. As a result, Atkinson was forced to resign from ITV and his newspaper column with The Guardian. Since then, he has barely worked in primetime punditry and now claims to be “fed up” with apologizing for the incident.

After decades as a professional ice hockey player and a head coach, Don Cherry transitioned into a broadcasting career. In 1982, he became the face of “Coach's Corner,” later creating an iconic partnership with Ron MacLean and gaining fame for his outlandish suits. However, in 2019, he ruined his career and reputation. Cherry went off on a rant criticizing immigrants, accusing them of not supporting Canadian veterans because they don’t buy and wear remembrance poppies. His comments were denounced by the Royal Canadian Legion, the NHL, and even his co-anchor MacLean, but Cherry refused to apologize. Two days later, he was fired by the broadcaster. As a result, “Coach's Corner” was canceled.

Since 1976, Cornette has been in various roles within the wrestling industry, working for companies such as WWE, Ring of Honor, WCW, and many more. There aren’t many big organizations he hasn’t worked for! Yet, while the sport evolved, Cornette seemingly didn’t. In 2019, while commentating for “NWA Powerrr” on YouTube, he mentioned Trevor Murdoch was the only guy he knew who “can strap a bucket of fried chicken on his back and ride a motor scooter across Ethiopia.” Cornette had rehashed a similar phrase he’d used in 1995. Due to the backlash, the NWA apologized and removed the episode online. The next day, Cornette was forced to leave the company, and one month later, he announced his retirement from commentary.

At one point, Morgan was one of the UK's most famous TV hosts, with projects such as “Britain’s Got Talent” and “Piers Morgan's Life Stories” under his belt. In 2015, he joined the “Good Morning Britain” team. However, over time, Morgan’s relentless criticism of Meghan Markle began to overshadow his work. It got so bad that in 2021, after the airing of “Oprah with Meghan and Harry,” Morgan expressed his doubts about Markle’s account of her mental health struggles. This sparked co-host Alex Beresford to verbally lay into him, resulting in a heated argument. Morgan stormed off the set in response. Later that day, he quit the show and has struggled to be taken seriously since.

Throughout his long broadcasting career, Bill Grundy was best remembered for one terrible interview. In 1976, he hosted the UK regional magazine show “Today.” With Queen unavailable due to a medical emergency, the Sex Pistols were brought in for a live interview instead. And it was a mess. Grundy was immediately hostile to the band and their entourage. He showed them no respect and even suggested that he was intoxicated. In return, the Pistols mocked him and swore repeatedly, despite such language being forbidden at the time. This incident turned the small show into a national discussion. Grundy was initially suspended, but two months later, “Today” was canceled, leaving him without a job. He fell into obscurity before his passing in 1993.

After moving to CNN and getting his own show in 2018, everything seemed to be going well for Chris Cuomo. When his brother Andrew, the governor of New York, was accused of harassment, Cuomo seemingly did the right thing by publicly stating he wouldn’t discuss the story due to a conflict of interest. Yet behind the scenes, it was apparently another matter. In 2021, it was discovered that Cuomo had used his connections and experience to advise Andrew on his response, and he’d collected information on the accusers. This horrific breach of journalistic ethics caused CNN to suspend Cuomo. This, on top of assault allegations against Cuomo himself, caused the network to ultimately fire its former prized host.

All it took was the first live episode of season 2 of New Zealand’s “X-Factor” to turn Kills and Moon into a joke in 2015. The married duo was working as judges and mentors on the show. After Joe Irvine had performed, Kills, also known as Teddy Sinclair, laid into him. She ranted that she believed Irvine was trying to imitate Moon, who is apparently the only musician allowed to perform in a suit with swept-back hair. Moon agreed with everything his wife said, even graphically comparing Irvine to Norman Bates. The outrage was massive, with accusations the couple were tormenting Irvine. Within a day, over 70,000 viewers called for their firing. And the show obliged them.

With a storied career in radio and a “shock jock” reputation, controversy has often surrounded Don Imus. But the biggest one happened in 2007 on his "“Imus in the Morning” show. While discussing an NCAA Women's Basketball Championship game between Rutgers University and the University of Tennessee, Imus and executive producer Bernard McGuirk made several offensive remarks. Imus called the Rutgers team “rough” due to having tattoos, then threw in racial slurs and misogynistic language with McGuirk. The incident sparked protests, and many activists and politicians called for Imus to be fired. After being briefly suspended, MSNBC fired Imus from their platform, a position he had held for 36 years. Imus continued his show elsewhere, albeit with a broken reputation.

The stage name for Jimmy Snyder, Jimmy the Greek was a television personality who kinda, sorta, maybe supported illegal gambling. A Las Vegas bookmaker, Snyder would appear on CBS’s “The NFL Today” and predict the scores. This would thereby help the bookies in Vegas set the odds for particular games. He served with CBS for twelve years before getting fired in 1988. In January of that year, he was giving an interview with Washington’s WRC-TV when he made highly offensive remarks about African American athletes. After his opinions drew immediate condemnation, even Snyder himself seemed remorseful. In the end, he was fired by CBS and later tried suing them for breach of contract. He didn’t win.

For a while, South African journalist Lara Logan had a good career and even served as Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for CBS. But everything collapsed on October 27, 2013 when she appeared on “60 Minutes” to report on the 2012 Benghazi attack. Logan’s report was riddled with factual errors. After the incident, she apologized on “CBS This Morning” for her shoddy journalism and blamed an inaccurate source in the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi. She was forced to take a leave of absence and later left CBS entirely. Logan then fell into far-right beliefs and started speaking publicly about various conspiracy theories. She also landed a job at Fox News, but she was fired by them as well in 2022.

When it comes to iconic names in news, it doesn’t get much bigger than Dan Rather. He anchored “CBS Evening News” for over two decades and won eight Peabodys. Unfortunately, his legendary career was overshadowed by an incident in the mid 2000s. In 2004, Rather reported on the “Killian documents.” These memos were supposed to be official proof that George W. Bush had a rocky stint as a member of the Texas Air National Guard. However, it was quickly revealed that these memos were a modern forgery. The affair severely tarnished Rather’s reputation with the network. After “retiring” as an anchorman, he was fired from CBS entirely. While he went on to other ventures, his career with the big network was seemingly damaged beyond repair.

After much local work, Rick Sanchez earned national attention when he was hired to work for CNN. He eventually became the station’s anchor and hosted his own show called “Rick’s List,” which drew acclaim for its unique integration of social media. But his steady rise came to a screeching halt due to a radio appearance. While Sanchez was on Sirius XM’s “Stand Up With Pete Dominick”. he made negative remarks about both Jon Stewart and Jewish people. He called Stewart “a bigot” (a term he later retracted) and claimed Jews were not an oppressed minority. Sanchez was fired from CNN a day after the comments went public. After losing his job, he made a number of public apologies.

For nearly twenty years, Kuiper was virtually seen as the play-by-play voice of the Oakland Athletics. But his career trajectory changed on May 5, 2023. Kuiper was in Kansas City for a game and mentioned on air that he had visited the city’s Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. But when speaking about the location, he said a racial slur as the first word of the title. Kuiper was quick to apologize and claimed that he misspoke. At the same time, the team’s official social media accounts condemned his use of the slur. Following an internal investigation, the longtime announcer was fired from the network.

While you might not know her name, you may have seen her viral clip. Natasha Exelby is a journalist who once worked for ABC Australia News. During one live show, the camera cut back to her while she was mindlessly playing with her pen. Exelby quickly realized her error with a big reaction and immediately went to segue into the next segment. While the clip was widely shared on social media as a funny clip, it was no laughing matter for Exelby. Since she was freelancing at the time, ABC Australia chose not to offer additional on air shifts. Exelby’s treatment after the pen incident earned her more support than jeers from her industry peers.

If there’s one cardinal rule in broadcasting, it’s that you should not swear. Danyelle Sargent was reminded of this rule when she worked for ESPN. She was doing a live broadcast on March 9, 2006 when the camera cut to pre-taped footage of a basketball game. Unbeknownst to her, Sargent’s microphone remained hot during the broadcast. This paved the way for everyone to hear her drop a massive f-bomb. And this wasn’t a “eh, maybe the viewers missed it” kind of thing. No, this was loud, very clear, and unmistakable. When it came time to renew her contract, ESPN declined.

Journalist Don Lemon had been steadily working in news since 2006, when he joined CNN as a correspondent. But at certain points in his career, he drew criticism for his negative opinions about women. Everything came to a head on February 19, 2023. On that day, Lemon criticized politician Nikki Haley by saying, “A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.” This comment earned Lemon widespread condemnation. It also sparked a report from Variety which showcased his history of misogynistic behavior. He was subsequently fired on April 24, 2023.

Most people know the name Rush Limbaugh for his popular talk radio show. But did you know that he also worked for ESPN as a football commentator? We wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, because the stint certainly didn’t last long. During one on-air segment, Limbaugh criticized Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. He called the athlete overrated and stated that the player received additional praise for being Black. The comments earned much criticism, and some called Limbaugh racist. The on air personality later claimed that he was trying to take shots at the media coverage. At the same time, Limbaugh also announced his resignation from ESPN just a few weeks into his tenure.

This television personality’s gift for gab landed her a job on, well, “The Talk.” The CBS daytime features a number of individuals discussing recent news and human interest stories. In a 2021 episode, the hosts discussed Meghan Markle and the harsh comments made against her by Piers Morgan. Osbourne defended aspects of Morgan’s behavior and got into a vicious fight with her co-host, Sheryl Underwood. To make matters worse, negative comments that Osbourne had previously made about Markle resurfaced. The argument and older soundbites convinced CBS to put the show on hiatus. They later announced that Osbourne’s conduct did not represent a “respectful workplace”. Not long after the incident, the host resigned from the show.

Best known for his political roundtable show “Hardball with Chris Matthews” that launched in 1997, this host’s involvement in politics and journalism actually goes back decades. So, after a long career in the public eye, Matthews was already at the point of contemplating retirement. But a bizarre rant likening Bernie Sanders’ Nevada caucus win to the Nazi invasion of France brought on his retirement much sooner than planned. His comments sparked calls for resignation, and coincided with a new column published about inappropriate comments he’d allegedly made towards journalist Laura Bassett. Facing the fire from two fronts, Matthews met with his bosses at MSNBC and later resigned on air after offering apologies for his behavior.

Abdul’s career soared as one of the original judges on “American Idol,” but there were reports in the mid-2000s that behind the scenes she was struggling with substance use. A now-infamous Fox News interview in 2007 only encouraged these rumors. Paula slurred her words and struggled with her balance, to the point where Fox News had to address her behavior on air. Two years later, “Ladies Home Journal” would publish an interview in which Abdul said she was overusing pain medication; Abdul claimed they’d fabricated quotes. Rumors also emerged that she’d clashed with “Idol” management, and Abdul and the show parted ways that same year. She’s been jumping from short-lived hosting gigs, reality TV and TV movies ever since.

We’ve mentioned foot-in-mouth disease and how dangerous it can be on live TV, but this next entry can only be described as a case of whole body-in-mouth disease. Sacramento reporter Angel Cardenas was getting the low down on an upcoming classic car show when – after noticing that he was alone in a room full of beautiful cars – he decided to make himself right at home, climbing on one car and possibly denting another. Cardenas was fired, obviously, but we can’t help but wonder if he wanted to be fired the whole time acting like this… Like, the dude didn’t even tuck his shirt in before going live on TV! He was either trying too hard or not trying hard enough…

After Paula Deen admitted to using racial slurs, her emergency PR strategy . . . was baffling. Essentially, it consisted of: showing up on National TV, crying and apologizing profusely, and making Biblical references about no one being without sin. This apology interview didn’t sit well with her critics, and nor did it win back any of her fleeing business partners. In fact, MORE businesses fled from “Deen Island” after this weak attempt at an apology, with both Caesars Entertainment and Walmart dropping her shortly after. In a short time span, one of the most popular celebrity chefs on the planet went from being on National TV with The Food Network, to appearing on smaller, local cable channels, and now self-publishing on YouTube.

For nearly twenty years, Chris Harrison served as host of “The Bachelor” and its many spin-offs. Between 2002 and 2021, Harrison guided us through the joys of love and the pains of loss. But speaking of loss, Harrison lost his job following an “Extra” interview with Rachel Lindsay. “The Bachelor” contestant Rachael Kirkconnell had ignited controversy for liking photos of the Confederate flag and attending an Antebellum South plantation-themed party. Harrison defended Kirkconnell during the interview with “Extra”, prompting widespread criticism and forcing him to take a leave of absence from “The Bachelor.” After a few months of silence, it was announced that Harrison was permanently stepping down as host.

If you never wanted to be invited back to co-host a show again, we couldn’t think of a better strategy than Kelly Osbourne’s when she appeared on “The View” in 2015. Responding to Donald Trump’s racist description of Mexican immigrants, Osbourne wondered who would clean Trump’s toilet. Now, we know she was trying to make a point about Trump’s attitude toward America’s Mexican community, and that her message got hella-twisted from her brain to her mouth. But we don’t foresee her being invited back to host “The View” anytime soon. Her career hasn’t exactly been stellar since, as she left “Fashion Police” that same year and has been hopping between competition shows and family endeavors since.

Not even a 15 year run as a news reporter and TV host could save the high-profile Kelly when she defended blackface on her show “Megyn Kelly Today” in 2018. In a discussion about why donning blackface is inappropriate on Halloween, Megyn failed to see the seriousness of it, saying it was routine when she was a kid and questioned whether it was racist. She received slight pushback from her co-hosts at the time, but the worst of the backlash came via Twitter and Kelly was forced to apologize on air the very next day. The apology was for naught, as only three days after making the remarks, Megyn’s show was canceled, and she was fired a few months later.

File this one under: So Funny He Should Have Kept His Job… Rookie newscaster Clemente was on his first day at the anchor desk – and super stressed – when he dropped an F-Bomb just as the show was going live. And, the rest, is viral video infamy! It was so popular that A.J. even did a media tour talking about the epic gaffe. And, while we understand why A.J. couldn’t have kept his job on live TV after such a careless mistake, we’re still laughing at this video all these years later; and, seeing as this single video has brought us so much joy, we really hope A.J. landed on his feet after being canned and is enjoying a happy, healthy life.

With the news industry in such a precarious place in the era of social media over the past decade, finding out that respected newsman Brian Williams lied in order to make his reporting sound more heroic came as an epic letdown in 2015. Williams made up a story about him being on a helicopter that came under fire in Iraq in 2003, and the public (and professional) outburst when it was revealed this wasn’t true forced NBC to suspend him for six months without pay. After so many years at the helm of NBC’s flagship news show in “NBC Nightly News,” Williams’ fabrications led to his demotion to MSNBC where he remained until his retirement in 2021.

Bush was made co-host on NBC’s “Today” after many years of co-hosting “Access Hollywood Live.” But his tenure at “Today” was short-lived after a previously unreleased tape of himself and (soon-to-be President) Donald Trump was uncovered that contained some pretty heinous remarks about women. Now, as we all know, Trump was definitely the most offensive in this recording – what with his now infamous line. But Bush was also widely criticized for encouraging Trump’s misogynistic behavior; and he was later suspended from “Today” and eventually fired from NBC entirely. Bush wasn’t heard from for almost three whole years after the incident either, until it was announced that he’d be taking over as host of “Extra” from Mario Lopez in 2019.

Which TV host who destroyed their career off-air shocked you the most? Matt Lauer? Phillip Schofield? Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes? Or someone else? Let us know below!