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ESPN has pulled Rachel Nichols off of her sideline reporting gig for the NBA Finals ahead of tonight's series opener after the revelation of a 2020 bombshell video in which she suggested African-American colleague Maria Taylor was given a particular studio assignment to promote diversity. The conversation, revealed on Sunday by The New York Times, was recorded by an unknown party during the 2020 NBA season restart at the league’s bubble in Florida when Nichols was apparently unaware a camera in her hotel room was still attached to a live microphone following a satellite broadcast. Nichols will continue to host...

Adam Silver sat down for an interview with Rachel Nichols on NBA Countdown earlier this week, and indicated that the social justice messaging that you see on the courts and the backs of players’ jerseys will be “left off the floor” next season. Rachel Nichols: The NBA has certainly been the most visible billion-dollar organization championing social justice and civil rights. As you noted in your press conference the other day, though, that has not been universally popular. How committed are you to being that going forward? Adam Silver: We’re completely committed to standing for social justice and racial equality and that’s...

Late Tuesday night, an anonymous party sent a Deadspin reporter four videos, which appeared to be a cell phone recording of a video feed, that shows ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, host of the afternoon NBA show The Jump, in a phone conversation with an unidentified man about personnel matters at the network. Nichols (whose face never appears on camera) and the other party to the call discuss Nichols’ career, ESPN staff, and the World Wide Leader’s decision about who will host the network’s coverage of the NBA Finals. In light of privacy concerns and our being unable to view the entirety...

CNN has canceled multiple series. Per Deadline,Crossfire has officially been canceled. The series, a CNN staple from 1982-2005, relaunched in September 2013, earned low ratings until it went on hiatus in May. The show briefly returned in July, then went on hiatus again. CNN is also canceling Sanjay Gupta M.D, CNN Money With Christine Romans and Unguarded With Rachel Nichols. All three anchors will remain with the network.

You would not be saying TGIF in cable newsland if you were Alec Baldwin or Rachel Nichols last week. The actor’s 10 PM MSNBC show Up Late and the former ESPN reporter’s Unguarded on CNN both hit demo lows on November 8. With guests Cristina Tzintzun of the Workers Defense Fund and the Coalition for the Homeless’ Mary Brosnahan talking immigration reform and anti-poverty programs, Up Late With Alec Baldwin pulled in just 101,000 viewers among adults 25-54 on Friday. That’s a 41% drop from the 172,000 demo results of the one-hour show’s October 11 debut. While Baldwin’s total viewers...