Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley: Why the PBS TV Shows Were Cancelled

Why did PBS cancel Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley? Recently, network boss Paula Kerger explained why PBS ended both TV series, TVGuide reports.

As reported earlier, PBS cancelled both Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley after both talk show hosts were accused of sexual misconduct.

At this year’s TCA winter press conference, Kerger revealed PBS had no idea about Charlie Rose and his alleged behavior:

As you know, the way that we’re organized is that the production that comes to public broadcasting is all done by independent organizations, as was [Rose]’s. It was an independent production company that was housed at Bloomberg. That’s where he produced his program. He managed the program himself — all of the human resources — all of that came out of his own organization. We didn’t have the kind of view into that organization and we learned of the issue with Charlie Rose the morning they actually wrote the story in The Washington Post.”

On the other hand, PBS had to investigate sexual misconduct claims about Tavis Smiley and came to the decision to suspend the series:

Because we were contacted by someone [directly], we hired a law firm that has expertise in this area and they conducted the investigation. I’m sure many of you have seen what [Smiley] has spoken about in the press. The investigation included, quite frankly, an interview with him. It was based on multiple allegations of inappropriate behavior, as well as his own words about what happened, that led us to the decision to suspend his program.”

What do you think? Did you watch Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley? Do you think PBS made the right decision?