Norm MacDonald’s appearance on tonight’s The Tonight Show has been canceled at the last minute.
“Out of sensitivity to our audience and in light of Norm Macdonald’s comments in the press today, The Tonight Show has decided to cancel his appearance on Tuesday’s telecast,” a spokesperson for NBC’s late-night talk show said Tuesday night.
Macdonald had done an interview with The Hollywood Reporter where he said he was glad that the #MeToo movement was slowing down some, and then seemed to defend Roseanne Barr and Louie CK’s actions while blaming the victims.
In one of the most controversial parts of the interview, which triggered backlash, he said of C.K. and Barr, “There are very few people that have gone through what they have, losing everything in a day. Of course, people will go, ‘What about the victims?’ But you know what? The victims didn’t have to go through that.”
He later clarified his comments and apologized on Twitter.
Roseanne and Louis have both been very good friends of mine for many years. They both made terrible mistakes and I would never defend their actions. If my words sounded like I was minimizing the pain that their victims feel to this day, I am deeply sorry.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) September 11, 2018
Macdonald rather famously lost his gig on SNL because he wouldn’t stop making jokes about OJ Simpson on the Weekend Update and the then head of NBC was a good friend of OJ’s.