"The Cosby Show" reruns are gone from Atlanta-based Bounce TV following guilty verdicts returned today by a Pennsylvania jury.
"Effective immediately, Bounce is removing 'The Cosby Show' from our schedule," the network said in a statement to media outlets including The Hollywood Reporter.
Bounce had yanked them before Cosby’s 2017 trial, amid mounting allegations, but had returned them to its lineup.
In a 2016 statement the network said:
“Following the results of a qualitative research study which indicated demand from a vast majority of Bounce viewers to see ‘The Cosby Show’ on television again, the network has made the decision to begin airing the series (in December 2016). While we take very seriously the accusations against Bill Cosby, our research showed that African-American consumers see a distinction between Bill Cosby, the man, and the iconic TV character Cliff Huxtable. Research and direct viewer feedback were the deciding factors in the network’s decision to move forward. The desire among African Americans to see the show on TV again is being reinforced on social media based upon overwhelmingly positive viewer response since the announcement.”
Here’s the announcement Bounce posted at the time.
That’s all over now. The network does still show “Cosby” spinoff “A Different World” on its roster.
Jurors in Bill Cosby's retrial on sexual assault charges on Thursday returned guilty verdicts. Cosby, 80, was allowed to leave the courthouse on $1 million bond and faces sentencing at a time yet to be announced. He faces up to 10 years on each of the three counts of which he was convicted.
Cosby has faced mounting accusations from multiple women; this trial involved victim Andrea Constand, who was a Temple University employee she said Cosby assaulted her at his home in 2004. Media outlets generally don’t identify victims of sexual assault, but Constand and other Cosby accusers have come forward to share their stories and did not request anonymity.
Besides Bounce TV, Cosby's ties to Atlanta include a scholarship he and his wife endowed; AJC writer Rosalind Bentley reported in 2014 that the Cosby Chair for the Humanities at Spelman College, funded in part by a $20 million gift that Bill and Camille Cosby gave to the school in the 1980s, was suspended amid a raft of sexual assault allegations.
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