Jerrod Carmichael slams NBC for postponing mass-shooting episode of his sitcom

Comedian Jerrod Carmichael is on the record blasting the NBC network for postponing an episode of his eponymous sitcom, the plot for which involved the main character surviving a mass shooting, and called the decision a “criminal” disservice to the American public.

Mr. Carmichael made the remarks on fellow comedian Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show, “Chelsea,” The Hollywood Reporter said Thursday. The interview will be available for streaming at 3 p.m. Friday, according to Decider.com.

“I understand a corporation making that decision, but really, to me, what it says is that you don’t think America is smart enough to handle real dialogue and something that reflects real family conversations and something that feels honest and true and still respects the victims,” Mr. Carmichael said, according to THR. “We handled the episode with as much love and integrity as we could. To pull that is just criminal. It does a disservice to the viewer, it does a disservice to you, it does a disservice to all of us.”

Oddly enough, in the very first season of “The Carmichael Show,” the cast reworked a joke for broadcast that had initially involved President Obama getting shot. The first live studio audience was uncomfortable and so Oprah Winfrey was swapped out in the revised punchline for the second run-through, entertainment-news site Vulture explained back in May.

On originally planned June 14 episode of “The Carmichael Show” centered on show’s title character, played by Mr. Carmichael, surviving a mass shooting and coming to grips with the emotional trauma.

NBC executives swapped out the episode with another one in light of the shootout in Alexandria, Virginia, that left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise critically injured and the gunman, James T. Hodgkinson, dead.

THR also noted that Mr. Carmichael’s program is set to embrace further controversy next week with an upcoming episode that uses the N-word, uncensored. A disclaimer will run at the beginning of the June 21 episode.

It is unclear when NBC intends to air the episode, titled “Shoot-up-able.”

The first two seasons of “The Carmichael Show” are available for streaming on Netflix, while Hulu and Amazon Video carry the program’s complete archive of previously broadcast episodes.