Showtime Drops ‘Circus’ Host Halperin After Sexual Harassment Allegations

Showtime became the latest company to cut ties with political reporter Mark Halperin Saturday following multiple sexual harassment complaints first revealed in reporting by CNN.

The fate of The Circus, the political documentary series which featured Halperin as a host, was not announced, only that Halperin will no longer be associated with Showtime.

The political series, which began with an extensive examination of the 2016 presidential election, also features Halperin’s frequent writing partner, political analyst John Heilemann, and Republican strategist Mark McKinnon.

The Showtime announcement was the latest domino to fall as Halperin’s once-thriving career has taken one blow after another in the four days since Halperin’s history of sexual harassment during his time as political director at ABC News was revealed.

Penguin Press dropped plans to publish the third in Halperin and Heilemann’s Game Change series, which began with the original Game Change book covering the 2008 presidential election and its sequel, Double Down: Game Change 2, which covered the 2012 election.

HBO immediately dropped plans to do a program based on the Halperin-Heilemann book and NBC and MSNBC announced it would not continue to use Halperin as a political analyst for the parent network and as a frequent panelist on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

The initial CNN report featured five women claiming sexual harassment and assault claims against Halperin. The number has climbed to a dozen since then as CNN and other media outlets have continued to produce new revelations.

Halperin offered an apology to the women and acknowledged misbehavior in a comment for CNN’s report. On Friday, he issued a more detailed apology. In his statement, he noted that there is more of an awareness now that men hurt women in the workplace.

“For a long time at ABC News, I was part of the problem. I acknowledge that and I deeply regret it.”

Halperin said he sought counseling for the problem at the end of his time at ABC, though no one in management had come to him with any complaints. While he admits to having sexually harassed women, Halperin denies the sexual assault allegations.

The veteran reporter also said the type of behavior toward women he practiced while working at ABC from 1997 to 2007 has not been repeated during his subsequent jobs at Time, Inc., Bloomberg, Showtime and NBC.

{Featured Image by Richard Shotwell/AP Images]