Now that it was revealed Bill Cosby owned up to claims that he drugged women in his past, networks are continuing to ax the TV dad’s iconic sitcoms Cosby and The Cosby Show from their rosters. The latest to do so are African-American-targeted networks Bounce TV and Centric.
According to Variety, as of Tuesday, the Martin Luther King III co-founded Bounce TV announced that it would immediately pull all reruns of Cosby. Centric will follow suit, pulling episodes of The Cosby Show beginning on Wednesday “until further notice,” said a spokesperson.
Cosby aired on CBS from 1996 to 2000 and starred Bill Cosby and his Cosby Show co-star Phylicia Rashad, Madeline Kahn and Jurnee Smollett. The Cosby Show, which starred Rashad, Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Raven-Symoné and Keshia Knight Pulliam aired from 1984 to 1992.
While his work is being removed from network television, his tarnished image is also affecting his status outside of the media. Disney recently confirmed that it will remove a bronze statue of Cosby from Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios. More than 250 supports have signed a petition to have the statue removed.
This all comes in the wake of news that Cosby testified in a 2005 sexual-abuse lawsuit that he had drugged women prior to having sex with them.
