Nick Cannon addressed the “America’s Got Talent” controversy with Gabrielle Union, throwing his full support behind the actress during a new interview with Vlad TV.
“Gabby’s my girl. I’ve been standing firmly with her and support whatever she needs,” Cannon said. “Whatever she said, if it happened, I’m rocking with you. Let’s go.”
Cannon comments days after AGT host Terry Crews threw Union under the bus by saying he never experienced any of her claims of discrimination, racial insensitivity and a “toxic” culture on the set.
“First of all, I can’t speak for sexism because I’m not a woman, but I can speak on behalf of any racism comments,” Crews said during an interview on 3rd hour of “Today.”
RELATED: Terry Crews Tweets Tone-Deaf Response To Gabrielle Union, Twitter Roasts Him
Cannon, who left “AGT” in 2017 after seven seasons of hosting, suggested during his Vlad TV interview that Crews is being loyal to his employer.
In the YouTube clip above, Cannon also touches on the culture at “AGT,” saying: “It was some eye-opening events that occurred that really just shed light on some cultural insensitvities, ultimately, when it comes to women, when it comes to how the show is produced.”
During his time on the show, Cannon said he saw things “that are truly not fair” regarding how the contestants and judges are handled.
Crews, however, said he hasn’t experienced the “toxic culture” that Union described.
“In fact, it was the most diverse place I have ever been in my 20 years of entertainment,” he told “Today’ last week.
Crews continued, “When you look at what the allegations were about, it was given by an unnamed source. My thing is – it’s funny because I believe you should listen to women, you should always believe women, so I asked my wife what I should do. She was like, ‘First of all, if it’s coming from an unnamed source – because Gabrielle Union has not made any statement about any of these allegations publicly – … If she hasn’t made a statement, why would you?’ ”
Cannon says problems at “AGT” come straight from the top with corporate entity Fremantle, which produces the show, and NBC.
“Fremantle (is) based out of the U.K. and a lot of their producers don’t understand the cultural sensitivities of American culture. And then … you have a network like NBC that’s only really worried about the dollar at the end of the day. All they want to see is that final product. They don’t care how you got to it,” he said. “So, when someone like Gabby, who is well educated, well-versed in speaking her mind, says, ‘Oh, this isn’t right, this shouldn’t be occurring,’ then people are like, ‘Now, she’s angry. Now, she’s a troublemaker.’ No. She’s pointing out things that are true issues that need to be fixed.”
He also understands Crews not wanting to speak ill of his employer.
“We get excited about the occupation. We get excited to work for the man and we’re going to defend the man because he gave me a job. And ‘I ain’t seen nothing’ becomes the thing. It doesn’t matter what you saw,” he said, adding that he supported Crews when he accused his former agent, Adam Venit, of sexual assault.
“I stood firmly by him when my former agent accosted him and people thought it was funny. We all thought it was funny, because the situation was so hard to believe that sometimes it can appear to be humorous,” Cannon said. “But the idea was it didn’t matter if it was funny. We stood by you because you said this was an issue. We didn’t see Adam Venit grab your genitalia, but you said it happened so we rocked with you.”
