It seems that Nick Cannon has no regrets about stepping away from “America’s Got Talent” or “AGT.”
The entertainer was in turmoil with NBC following his 2017 stand-up comedy special, “Stand Up, Don’t Shoot,” in which he spoke out against the network for allegedly stifling his creativity to cater to a white audience.
“They threatened to fire me ’cause of something I said in one of my comedy specials. I said ‘You ain’t gotta threaten to fire me. I quit,'” Cannon said during a sit-down with “The Big Interview” on BigBoyTV.
Several of Cannon’s business associates advised him to remain on “AGT” since it is one of the most watched shows on the network, averaging between 9 million and 16 million viewers each season, per TicketSmarter, and he was the highest-paid host at the time.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, he earned a reported $70,000 per episode from 2009 to 2016.
“Everybody that I looked up to, all my business people… people stopped working with me,” Cannon recalled about leaving the show. ‘You’re making a brash decision … This is a once in a lifetime opportunity … Nothing like this … This is the No. 1 show….'”
The network was also allegedly concerned about how Cannon’s departure would appear to the public. To remedy the situation and keep him on the show, he says NBC offered to increase his salary.
“They came back and doubled down with more money,” he explained during the interview. “A lot of money, like twice what I was already making because for the optics of it, they didn’t want it to look like it was their fault. Especially when you put race and stuff involved. So, they was trying to make it good and clean it up and all of that. And I was like, ‘I don’t want your money.'”
Cannon had no interests in staying on the show.
As a result of the aftermath, he was without a network opportunity until he secured a deal with Fox, which led to an opportunity with “The Masked Singer.”
The show, known for its mysterious high intensity celebrity performances, has also proven to be successful.
